Monkey see, monkey do. But now it appears cool monkeys see and hip monkeys do, well, everything that bit better than anyone else.
It is not only humans who want to climb to the top of the tree by apeing the coolest member of the gang. It seems well-connected monkeys also pick up new tricks faster and better than their less popular peers.
A new study, led by the St Andrews University and published in Current Biology, shows squirrel monkeys who are at the centre of their group’s social network pick up innovations first.
The research, carried out by St Andrews trio Dr Nicolas Claidiere, Emily Messer and Professor Andrew Whiten in collaboration with Dr Will Hoppitt of Anglia Ruskin University, documented the habits of two groups of squirrel monkeys at St Andrews University’s Living Links to Human Evolution research centre in Edinburgh Zoo.
They tracked the monkeys’ social networks by recording who spent time with who when the monkeys were in the vicinity of “artificial fruit” which could be manipulated to extract tasty treats.
Analysis revealed some primates are at the heart of their groups, while others are on the periphery.
Each monkey was rated by their place in the hierarchy within their group before the alpha males were separated and taught how to use different techniques of opening the fake fruit to get to the treats, either by lifting a hatch or pivoting it from side to side.
Then the jungle VIPs were reunited with their gangs. Scientists found monkeys who were well connected in the network were the most likely to successfully pick up the new techniques so were truly the hubs of their gangs.
Professor Whiten, of the evolutionary and developmental psychology department at St Andrews, said: “Our study shows that innovations do not just spread randomly in primate groups, but as in humans, are shaped by the monkeys’ social networks.”
According to Dr Claidiere, interest in social learning and social network analysis has surged in recent years, and the team’s results were likely to stimulate further research on the spread of innovations among animal gangs.
“Previous research has focused on other relationships, like who grooms whom, which may not correlate with the monkeys’ observational learning in the same way.”
Professor Whiten noted that similar effects were recently identified in a study by other boffins in the group’s research centre, suggesting that innovations in foraging techniques among humpback whales spread along similar social network lines.
Another interesting fact was noted by Emily, who is completing her PhD on the monkeys in Living Links.
Maternal relationships explained parts of the social network, she said, so some of the monkeys’ new habits may stem from learning within families.