Dear Colleagues,

Hardware (as drones or robots) and software (as artificial intelligence and automatic identification) are currently supporting new advances in animal behavior and cognition. These new technologies help us to surpass some limits of traditional approaches by fully tracking animals in their natural environment, or understanding the cognitive capabilities of animals. Additionally, the way of thinking ‘How can I work with this animal?’ helps more and more researchers to consider animal agency in their protocols and training programs, yielding new results on uncommon tested species in captivity or bringing the lab to the field. The purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight (1) how researchers study animals with these new technological devices at their disposal, and (2) how animals can now be enrolled to collaborate with scientists. Data analysis methodologies such as deep learning, random tree forests analyses and information theory are also welcome. All together this should lead to new advances in multiple domains such as cognition, ethology, ecology, conservation and neuroscience.

Dr. Cédric Sueur
Dr. Marie Pelé
Guest Editors

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• animal cognition
• new technologies
• animal agency
• interdisciplinarity
• lab and field experiments

Title: Decolonising human-wildlife conflict: baboon mythology in South Africa
Authors: Fabien Génin; Diana Manhanga; Sunu Mabera; Marianna Cravero; Selena Esposito; Lwandiso Pamla; Laura Bidner; Jean Senogles; Judith Masters
Affiliation: APIES/AEON, Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Italy Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, East London, South Africa Department of Anthropology, University of California, USA
Abstract: Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) show extraordinarily versatile behaviour, allowing them to adapt to a variety of habitats, including suburbia. The behaviour of baboons was described lyrically by Marais in the 1930s, but is difficult to capture realistically using statistics. In South Africa, the antics and intelligence of monkeys and baboons has inspired a colonial mythology made up largely of fantastic stories that, in turn, have fed an ongoing conflict between humans and their primate neighbours. Our research team, the African Primate Initiative for Ecology & Speciation (APIES), has conducted an 11-year study of free-ranging baboons and samango monkeys that coexist alongside human residents from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. We have recorded socio-ecological observations of troop compositions and ranging patterns, as well as baboon and monkey anecdotes collected opportunistically and during formal interviews from the local residents. Also including stories collected on vervet (Chlorocebus aethiops) and samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albogularis), we concluded that the mismatch between the observations of trained researchers and those of the residents strongly suggests that the root of the demonising of South African primates is fear. Finally, the passion inspired by baboons and monkeys, does not spare scientists, often caught in bitter disputes that impair both our fundamental understanding of baboon societies and applied conflict mitigation.

Title: A comprehensive investigation of negative visitor behaviour in the zoo setting and captive animals’ behavioural response
Authors: Courtney Collins; Sean McKeown; Ruth O’Riordan
Affiliation: University College Cork, Ireland Fota Wildlife Park, Cork, Ireland
Abstract: Visitor effects in zoos generally includes assessment of easily quantified parameters such as visitor presence, number and noise level. Rarely do studies consider the specific behaviours of visitors as they view animals. However, unregulated negative visitor actions such as banging, shouting and feeding are unwanted behaviours that may be common in zoos. Yet, there is almost no research that quantifies how prevalent negative behaviour is, which species or enclosure type receives the most negative behaviour or how this behaviour affects zoo-housed animals. In this study, a comprehensive assessment of negative visitor behaviour, using an innovative methodology, was carried out at 25 enclosures at Fota Wildlife Park, Ireland. Animal activity level was also observed. Descriptive statistics and general linear models were used to investigate which independent variables affected behaviour. Findings indicate that banging was the most common negative behaviour and that Humboldt penguins, lion-tailed macaques and Sumatran tigers were the most harrassed species. Negative behaviour increased as visitor number increased and at traditional-style enclosures. Active animal behaviours were associated with higher numbers of visitors, but also more negative visitor behaviour. By better understanding negative behaviours, zoos can strive to reduce or eliminate these unregualted actions. Future studies should strive to minimise negative visitor behaviour and consider the implications of negative behaviour on captive animal welfare in more detail.

Title: Chronobiology in coping styles of gilthead seabream (S. aurata): understanding individual variation in biological rhythms
Authors: Bernardete Lopes Rodrigues; Marco Cerqueira; Catarina Oliveira
Affiliation: Universidade do Algarvedisabled, Faro, Portugal
Abstract: Diel and circadian rhythms have been extensively studied in teleost fish, with the light-dark cycle being considered one of the most important synchronizers of biological daily rhythms. In order to determine to which extent coping styles are contributing to the variability reported in numerous chronobiological studies, daily locomotor activity rhythms were investigated in 3 groups of seabream presenting opposite coping styles: Bold, Shy, and Intermediate. Two other groups were also tested as controls: a control group with mixed coping styles (Control), and another with unknown coping styles (Naïve). Conspicuous differences in behavioural patterns amongst seabream presenting opposite coping styles were observed. In a first experiment, when initially reared under a standard dark/light cycle (DL), seabream displayed an overt daily rhythmicity with prevalent diurnal activity. When fish were subsequently exposed to a 12 h photoperiod shift (LD), both Bold and Shy, as well as controls, rapidly resynchronized to the new photophase whereas a gradual resynchronization was observed for Intermediate fish before a complete entrainment to the new LD cycle. In a second experiment, Bold, Intermediate, and control groups exhibited circadian rhythmicity in locomotor activity when reared under constant conditions (DD). Curiously, Intermediate fish displayed a distinctive free-running activity rhythm of 23:22 h, whereas Shy seabream, conversely, showed complete arrhythmicity. Taken altogether, these observations suggest that activity rhythms in gilthead seabream seem to be endogenously driven by a circadian system, and strongly modulated by light: light-dark cycle seemed to be the most important synchronizer of the observed diel rhythms. Consistent behavioural patterns of opposing seabream coping styles observed in the present work indicate that different coping styles might explain differences in adaptability to environmental cues. This work presents the most comprehensive description of the influence of the light-dark cycle in diel and circadian locomotor activity rhythms for gilthead seabream to date.

Title: Humans and chimpanzees display emotional bias towards conspecifics only
Authors: Anna Matsulevits; Nick Vogelezang; Roman Akyüz; Juan Olvido Perea-García; Mariska Esther Kret
Affiliation: Leids Universitair Medisch Centrumdisabled, Leiden, Netherlands
Abstract: Perceiving and correctly interpreting emotional expressions is one of the most important abilities for social animals’ communication. It determines the majority of social interactions, group dynamics, and cooperation, being highly relevant for an individual’s survival. With the evolutionary implications of understanding emotions, and the phylogenetical closeness between humans and non-human primates, the core mechanisms of this ability have been hypothesized to be shared across closely related species. In the current study, we aimed to find homologies in human processing of different species’ facial expressions using eye-tracking. Introducing a prime-target paradigm, we tested the influences on human’s attention elicited by priming with differently valenced emotional stimuli depicting human and chimpanzee faces. We demonstrated a shift of attention towards the conspecific emotional target picture that was congruent with the valence depicted on the primer picture. We did not find this effect to occur with heterospecific primers, although based on post-hoc valence and arousal ratings, the emotional expressions in chimpanzees were interpreted correctly. Explanations of this finding, as well as implications about the involvement of related emotion processing mechanisms between humans and chimpanzees are discussed. Additional systematic investigations of emotional expressions across species are needed to unravel whether the emotion representation mechanisms can extend to process other species’ faces.