Keyword search (4,164 papers available)

"innovation" Keyword-tagged Publications:

Title Authors PubMed ID
1 Acceptance of entomophagy among Canadians at an insectarium Velchovska N; Khelifa R; 41565845
BIOLOGY
2 Wearable biosensors: A comprehensive overview Wu KY; Su ME; Kim Y; Nguyen L; Marchand M; Tran SD; 40683741
ENCS
3 Editorial: World mental health day 2022: key drivers of risk to mental health services and innovative solutions Shen N; Jilka S; Sawchuk K; 39100959
PSYCHOLOGY
4 Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning Lazure L; Weladji RB; 38912327
BIOLOGY
5 Primates and disability: Behavioral flexibility and implications for resilience to environmental change Stewart BM; Joyce MM; Creeggan J; Eccles S; Gerwing MG; Turner SE; 38050800
CONCORDIA

 

Title:Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning
Authors:Lazure LWeladji RB
Link:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38912327/
DOI:10.1093/beheco/arae046
Publication:Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Keywords:behaviorcognitionforaginginnovationmemoryproblem-solving
PMID:38912327 Category: Date Added:2024-06-24
Dept Affiliation: BIOLOGY
1 Biology Department, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
2 Conservation and Research Department, Zoo de Granby, Granby, Québec, Canada.

Description:

Cognition helps wildlife exploit novel resources and environments. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) have successfully adapted to human presence, in part due to their cognitive abilities. However, interactions between humans and wildlife can create conflict. A better understanding of the raccoon's behavioral flexibility and learning ability could mitigate some conflicts. Our objective was to evaluate wild raccoons learning in contexts varying in terms of exposure to humans (recreational and preservation zoning within protected areas) and task difficulty. Learning can be evaluated over multiple exposures to a cognitive task. Across three years of experiment, we employed 2 food extraction tasks to gauge the change in problem-solving performance over trials. This assessment considered the success probability (the number of successful trials divided by the total number of trials) and the time taken to solve the puzzles. We also looked at the effects of 2 behavioral traits, exploratory diversity and persistence. We found strong evidence for learning over consecutive trials in terms of improved success probability. Improvement in terms of success probability and solving time was more pronounced with the initially easier task. We detected an increase in success probability over trials only in the recreation zones, and there was no evidence of an effect of behavioral traits. The improved performance attributed to learning was also maintained over consecutive years. We provide additional evidence that raccoons can learn how to solve a problem, resulting in a more effective solution in consecutive trials. Finally, we consider the management implications of dealing with raccoons accessing anthropogenic resources.





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