Wild Orangutan Males Plan and Communicate Their Travel Direction One Day in Advance
Open accessAbstract
The ability to plan for the future beyond immediate needs would be adaptive to many animal species, but is widely thought to be uniquely human. Although studies in captivity have shown that great apes are capable of planning for future needs, it is unknown whether and how they use this ability in the wild. Flanged male Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) emit long calls, which females use to maintain earshot associations with them. We tested whether long calls serve to communicate a male's ever-changing predominant travel direction to facilitate maintaining these associations. We found that the direction in which a flanged male emits his long calls predicts his subsequent travel direction for many hours, and that a new call indicates a change in his main travel direction. Long calls given at or near the night nest indicate travel direction better than random until late afternoon on the next day. These results show that male orangutans make their travel plans well in advance and announce them to conspecifics. We suggest that such a planning ability is likely to be adaptive for great apes, as well as in other taxa.
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Sumatran orangutan long calls predict their future travel trajectories, perhaps involving remembered past travel routes and outcomes.
“Sumatran orangutan long calls, in which flanged males emit loud calls to convey social information to females and other males, predict their future travel trajectories [208], perhaps involving remembered past travel routes and outcomes.”
From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [208]
The interpretations that can be reasonably drawn from these observational data would be significantly strengthened through controlled experimental research, as it is often impossible to rule out the influence of various environmental cues in dictating behaviour.
“the interpretations that can be reasonably drawn from these data would be significantly strengthened through controlled experimental research, as, for example, it is often impossible to rule out the influence of various environmental cues in dictating behaviour [208].”
From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [208]
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- Authors
- van Schaik, C. P., Damerius, L., & Isler, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Isler, Karin
- ORCID
- Isler, Karin
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-09-11
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e74896
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3770631
- OpenAlex
- W2009563682
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7
- FWCI
- 7.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Wenner-Gren Foundation
- Leakey Foundation
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Universitas Indonesia
- Universitas Syiah Kuala
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Keywords
- Sumatran orangutan, Pongo abelii, long calls, vocal communication, travel direction, future planning, great apes, animal cognition, animal communication
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Communication, Animals, Wild, Female, Male, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Social Behavior, Vocalization, Animal, Pongo abelii
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