Training vervet monkeys to avoid electric wires: Is there evidence for social learning?

Publication Type:
 Journal Article
Year of Publication:
 2005
Authors:
 Tony Weingrill, Coralie Stanisière, Ronald Noë
Publication/Journal:
 Zoo Biology
Publisher:
 A Wiley Company, Inc., Wiley Subscription Services
Keywords:
 , , ,
ISBN:
 1098-2361
Abstract:

Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20041.abs Before being released into a large park enclosed by an electric fence, a wild-caught vervet group (Chlorocebus aethiops) had to learn to avoid electrified wires in a smaller cage. During this training, we observed the group continuously for 12 consecutive days to investigate if social learning was involved in the learning process. Results showed that all monkeys received an electric shock (average=2.5 shocks/individual). Most contacts with the wires occurred during the first few days of training and the vervets were never observed to come into contact with the electric fence in the 18 months after their release into the large park. This suggests that the vervets learned to avoid the electrified wires by trial-and-error learning. It is possible that local and stimulus enhancement may have played a role, but we could not carry out the necessary control experiments to quantify the role of these components. Observational conditioning of fear can be ruled out, however, because the vervets did not show fearful behavior toward the wires. Zoo Biol 24:145–151, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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