Loukola, O. J. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

The Effect of Human Presence and Activity Type on Innovative Problem-Solving of Urban Eurasian Red Squirrels.

O_LIHumans impact wildlife positively and negatively, and increasing evidence shows that humans potentially play a major role in shaping cognition in wild animals. Recent evidence suggests, in particular, that the ability to innovate (an important cognitive ability for urban wildlife) can be affected by humans. However, the specific anthropogenic factors associated with shaping animal cognitive performance remain unclear. C_LIO_LIHere, across 15 urban areas in Oulu, Finland, we recorded 64 wild Eurasian red squirrels interactions with a novel puzzle box (innovative problem-solving) to obtain a highly preferred food, hazelnuts. C_LIO_LIWe then examined how different levels of human presence nearby, types of activity (walking, dog walking, cycling, and playground activities), and distance to the nearest footpaths influenced squirrels innovative problem-solving ability - measured as solving success at the population level and solving latency at the individual level. C_LIO_LIAt the population level, higher mean human presence nearby significantly decreased the proportion of squirrels that successfully solved the novel food-extraction problem ("innovators"), and greater human presence nearby decreased first-visit solving latency at individual level. Except for cycling, all types of human activities (walking, dog walking, and playground activity) significantly decreased first-visit success rate. Dog walking and playground activity had a greater negative impact on success rate at the population level than walking. Dog walking was the only outstanding factor affecting first-success latency. We also detected interaction effects between the types of human activities and nearest footpath on overall success rate of all innovators. C_LIO_LIThese results provide evidence for the negative effect of specific human-related factors on squirrels innovative problem-solving abilities. These factors may also exert selective pressure, potentially shaping the evolution of wildlife cognition. C_LI

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2022

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of selective interspecific information use

II.AbstactThe ecology of social information use has been studied in many intra- and interspecific contexts, while the evolutionary consequences of social information use remain less understood. Furthermore, selective social information use, where individuals are discriminative in their decision-making on how to use social information, has been overlooked in interspecific context. In particular, the intentional decision to reject a behavioural trait observed via social information, has gained less attention, although it has recently been shown to occur in various taxa. We develop an individual-based simulation model to explore in which circumstances social information use leads to different coevolutionary outcomes among populations of two species. The initial phenotypes and the balance between costs of competition and benefits of social information use determine whether selection leads to trait divergence, convergence or coevolutionary arms race between two species. Based on existing literature, we propose that selective decisions of individuals, including active rejection, may have far-reaching fitness consequences, potentially leading to similar evolutionary consequences among the populations of the information source and the user as predicted by our model. Overall, we argue that the eco-evolutionary consequences of selective interspecific social information use may be much more prevalent than thus far considered.

evolutionary biology↗