Does watching a monkey change its behaviour? : Quantifying observer effects in habituated wild primates using automated radiotelemetry

Crofoot, Margaret C.; Lambert, Thomas D.; Kays, Roland; Wikelski, Martin

Does watching a monkey change its behaviour? : Quantifying observer effects in habituated wild primates using automated radiotelemetry

Dateien

Wikelski_4.pdfGröße: 21.15 MBDownloads: 1229

Datum

2010

Autor:innen

Crofoot, Margaret C.

Lambert, Thomas D.

Kays, Roland

Wikelski, Martin

Open Access-Veröffentlichung

Open Access Green

Sammlungen

Biologie

Publikationstyp

Zeitschriftenartikel

Publikationsstatus

Published

Erschienen in

Animal behaviour. 2010, 80(3), pp. 475-480. ISSN 0003-3472. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.06.006

Zusammenfassung

In studies of animal behaviour, researchers have long been concerned that their presence may change the conduct of their study subjects. To minimize observer effects, researchers often habituate their study animals. The premise of this method is that, with sufficient neutral exposure, animals will stop reacting to humans. While numerous studies demonstrate that negative responses to humans decrease over time, the fact that an animal does not flee from or behave aggressively towards observers cannot be taken as evidence that it is not altering its behaviour in other, more subtle ways. Because remotely monitoring the behaviour of wild animals is difficult, it has not been possible to answer the critical question: do habituated animals change their behaviour when researchers are present? Here, we use data from an automated radiotelemetry system that remotely monitored the movement and activity of radiocollared animals to test whether observers affected the behaviour of seven habituated white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus. We found no evidence that observers influenced the ranging behaviour or activity patterns of their study subjects. Capuchins did not move faster, stop to rest less frequently, or display higher levels of activity when they were being followed compared to when they were alone. It has been suggested that researchers may embolden habituated study subjects, artificially increasing their relative dominance, but we found no relationship between observer presence and proximity to neighbouring social groups. Although it remains possible that observer effects existed but were too subtle to be detected with the remote sensing technology we used, the results of this study nevertheless provide reassuring evidence that humans can observe habituated wild animals without overly influencing the animals activity and movement patterns.

Fachgebiet (DDC)

570 Biowissenschaften, Biologie

Schlagwörter

Barro Colorado island, Panama, cebus capucinus, habituation, telemetry

Zitieren

ISO 690

CROFOOT, Margaret C., Thomas D. LAMBERT, Roland KAYS, Martin WIKELSKI, 2010. Does watching a monkey change its behaviour? : Quantifying observer effects in habituated wild primates using automated radiotelemetry. In: Animal behaviour. 2010, 80(3), pp. 475-480. ISSN 0003-3472. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.06.006

BibTex

@article{Crofoot2010watch-6724,
  year={2010},
  doi={10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.06.006},
  title={Does watching a monkey change its behaviour? : Quantifying observer effects in habituated wild primates using automated radiotelemetry},
  number={3},
  volume={80},
  issn={0003-3472},
  journal={Animal behaviour},
  pages={475--480},
  author={Crofoot, Margaret C. and Lambert, Thomas D. and Kays, Roland and Wikelski, Martin}
}

RDF

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/6724">
    <dcterms:issued>2010</dcterms:issued>
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/28"/>
    <dc:creator>Kays, Roland</dc:creator>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">In studies of animal behaviour, researchers have long been concerned that their presence may change the conduct of their study subjects. To minimize observer effects, researchers often habituate their study animals. The premise of this method is that, with sufficient neutral exposure, animals will stop reacting to humans. While numerous studies demonstrate that negative responses to humans decrease over time, the fact that an animal does not flee from or behave aggressively towards observers cannot be taken as evidence that it is not altering its behaviour in other, more subtle ways. Because remotely monitoring the behaviour of wild animals is difficult, it has not been possible to answer the critical question: do habituated animals change their behaviour when researchers are present? Here, we use data from an automated radiotelemetry system that remotely monitored the movement and activity of radiocollared animals to test whether observers affected the behaviour of seven habituated white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus. We found no evidence that observers influenced the ranging behaviour or activity patterns of their study subjects. Capuchins did not move faster, stop to rest less frequently, or display higher levels of activity when they were being followed compared to when they were alone. It has been suggested that researchers may embolden habituated study subjects, artificially increasing their relative dominance, but we found no relationship between observer presence and proximity to neighbouring social groups. Although it remains possible that observer effects existed but were too subtle to be detected with the remote sensing technology we used, the results of this study nevertheless provide reassuring evidence that humans can observe habituated wild animals without overly influencing the animals  activity and movement patterns.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <dc:creator>Lambert, Thomas D.</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Wikelski, Martin</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>terms-of-use</dc:rights>
    <dc:contributor>Kays, Roland</dc:contributor>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2011-03-24T17:28:43Z</dc:date>
    <dc:contributor>Wikelski, Martin</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/28"/>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <dcterms:bibliographicCitation>First publ. in: Animal behaviour 80 (2010), 3, pp. 475-480</dcterms:bibliographicCitation>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/6724/1/Wikelski_4.pdf"/>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2011-09-30T22:25:04Z</dcterms:available>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/6724"/>
    <dc:contributor>Crofoot, Margaret C.</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Crofoot, Margaret C.</dc:creator>
    <dcterms:title>Does watching a monkey change its behaviour? : Quantifying observer effects in habituated wild primates using automated radiotelemetry</dcterms:title>
    <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <dc:contributor>Lambert, Thomas D.</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/"/>
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/6724/1/Wikelski_4.pdf"/>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Universitätsbibliographie

Ja