US EditionSpider Monkeys Share 'Insider Knowledge' on Food Sources, Study Finds
Geoffroy's spider monkeys use fluid subgroup dynamics to share unique knowledge of fruit locations, enhancing foraging efficiency through collective intelligence, study shows.
- A seven-year field study in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula found Geoffroy's spider monkeys constantly change social subgroups to exchange information about food sources, published in npj Complexity.
- Researchers found an optimal middle ground between monkeys sticking together and spreading out, balancing cohesion and exploration to maximise group-level foraging coverage.
- Tracking individual movements and mapping core ranges revealed where knowledge overlaps using data collected by experienced field observers between January 2012 and December 2017.
- The work shows collective intelligence in natural conditions, demonstrating that distributed foraging improves group knowledge and carries conservation relevance for the endangered Geoffroy's spider monkey with future applications to other species and social interactions.
- Beyond pairwise models, the team plans to study larger multi-individual interactions, as demographic factors fail to explain patterns observed in subgroups of three or more.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Uncovering complementary information sharing in spider monkey collective foraging using higher-order spatial networks - npj Complexity
Collectives are often able to process information in a distributed fashion, surpassing each individual member’s processing capacity. In fission-fusion dynamics, where group members come together and split from others often, sharing complementary information about uniquely known foraging areas could allow a group to track a heterogenous foraging environment better than any group member on its own. We analyse the partial overlaps between individua…
The Independent
Western Morning NewsStudy finds spider monkeys share ‘insider knowledge’ about this key aspect of life
Spider monkeys share their knowledge of the best sources of food, research has found
Evening Standard
Spider monkeys share knowledge to find best fruit trees, research finds
The study was based on seven years of field observations in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
It might seem like they're wandering through the forest somewhat randomly, searching for food, but there's actually a strategy behind it: spider monkeys each pick out their own patch of forest and then tell each other where the best fruit trees are, research shows. Spider monkeys often travel in groups of three or more, and their […] Want to know more about science? Read the latest articles on Scientias.nl .
Study finds spider monkeys share ‘insider knowledge’ about this key aspect of life – UK Times
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Spider monkeys possess a sophisticated social system, sharing “insider knowledge” about the best fruit trees in the forest rather than foraging randomly, new research has found. Scientists discovered that these primates constantly change their social subgroups, a dynamic behaviour that enable…
National Institutes of Health (NIH)…
arxiv.orgUncovering complementary information sharing in spider monkey collective foraging using higher-order spatial networks
Collectives are often able to process information in a distributed fashion, surpassing each individual member’s processing capacity. In fission-fusion dynamics, where group members come together and split from others often, sharing complementary ...
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