25 Mar
2024
25 Mar
'24
8 a.m.
Dear BERGers,
This Wednesday Dr Sylvain
Lemoine<https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-sylvain-lemoine>
<https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-sylvain-lemoine> (University of Cambridge) will
be giving a seminar for us (online) entitled "Territorial landscapes: landscape of
xeno-fear and tactical use of physical landscape in wild chimpanzees". Please find
the abstract below. I hope to see you virtually then!
Abstract
Landscapes, whether physical or perceptive, such as landscapes of fear, play a major role
in population dynamics and evolutionary processes. Drawing from empirical insights on the
territorial behaviour of wild non-human primates, the landscape of xeno-fear proposes a
conceptual framework in which the risk inherent from hostile rivals/neighbours builds a
socio-ecological “Umwelt” for the individuals and the groups, influencing behavioural
decisions, impacting in-group interactions and ultimately driving behavioural adaptations.
This landscape of xeno-fear implies a conscious, recurrent and impactful perception of the
risks imposed by strong and potentially lethal inter-group competition. The level of the
perceived risk, traded off against other motives, drives behavioural decisions and changes
aiming ultimately at minimizing risks. New insights on chimpanzee territorial behaviour
demonstrate the materialisation of the landscape of xeno-fear through the use of physical
landscape features, such as high ground, to pre-emptively detect hostile neighbours and
act in a risk-minimising manner according to the information gathered. Other implications
on potential behavioural variations and changes, including the effect of physical
landscape heterogeneity on the intensity of inter-group competition can be drawn from this
model. Given the selective potential of out-group conflicts on cooperation and cognitive
skills in human evolution, the landscape of xeno-fear, cognitively and collectively
perceived, could have had important implications in the evolution of hominin species in
terms of movements, population dynamics, and ultimately cognitive and cooperative
adaptations.
MSTeams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmee…
Spring Semester speakers:
Date
Time
Speaker
Format
27/03/2024
16:00
Sylvain Lamoine (Cambridge)
Online
03/04/2024
16:00
Review of BERG research strategy (core BERG)
F2F
10/04/2024
16:00
17/04/2024
16:00
Victor Shirimizu (Strathclyde)
F2F (Room 4B96)
24/04/2024
16:00
Lifespan Equipment Demonstration
01/05/2024
16:00
Victoria Lee (SRUC)
F2F/hybrid
08/05/2024
10:00
James Brooks (Kyoto)
Online
15/05/2024
22/05/2024
16:00
Elodie Freymann
online
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1786 467844<tel:+441786467844>
Twitter: @fedurekp<https://twitter.com/fedurekp>
@BERG_Stirling<https://twitter.com/BERG_Stirling>
Staff page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG
page<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/research-groups/behaviour-and-evolution-research-group/>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159