Sheep, camels, goats, gazelles and other hoofed animals are better at figuring out solutions to puzzles when they are less integrated into social groups.
Such marginalisation might force individuals to find food, shelter and other needs on their own without group help, thereby fuelling innovation, says at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e not well integrated into your social group, you can鈥檛 count on friends providing you with support or sharing resources with you, and you have to count on yourself much more,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting that problem-solving skills appear to be quite an alternative to social skills.鈥�
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Amici and her colleagues wanted to consider how social groups affect individual animals鈥� capacity for innovation. They decided to concentrate on ungulates 鈥� hoofed animals 鈥� which live in widely varied social group structures and include both wild and domesticated species.
The team worked with 111 ungulates from 13 species, all living in zoos in Spain, France and Germany. They included 16 goats (Capra aegagrus hircus), 13 dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas osiris), nine sheep (Ovis aries), six impalas (Aepyceros melampus petersi), six giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) and four llamas (Lama glama).
The researchers observed each animal every 15 minutes for several days to determine its rank in the group鈥檚 social hierarchy and how well it was integrated into the group. They also scored each animal鈥檚 fear of new objects 鈥� known as neophobia 鈥� by placing a colourful plastic bucket or bowl next to its usual food.
Then, the team placed a set of covered cups 鈥� filled with whatever food each species particularly liked, such as carrots or alfalfa grass 鈥� in the enclosure with the animals. Video cameras recorded their behaviour without humans present.
Regardless of species, it was the less socially integrated and less neophobic individuals that were most successful in figuring out how to open the lids to get to the food inside the cups.
It is possible that because these animals get left out of the group, they are more motivated to find other ways to get food and other resources on their own, says Amici.
Another possibility is that these individuals aren鈥檛 necessarily outcasts, but rather that they choose to be alone, says at the University of Rennes in France. 鈥淭hese might be more autonomous individuals, who need less proximity with their group because they figure things out on their own,鈥� she says.
Whether the findings apply to humans and other species is unclear. 鈥淚t鈥檚 tempting to see a parallel [with humans],鈥� says Amici. 鈥淚ndividuals with high problem-solving skills may not be the most socially skilled people.鈥�
As far as the different species are concerned, Przewalski horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) 鈥� the only true wild species of horse 鈥� were the fastest to figure out the puzzle, opening the lid in an average of 6 seconds, whereas it took more than 5 minutes for mhorr gazelles (Nanger dama mhorr), the slowest, to complete the same task. In general, the more domesticated species 鈥� like goats, sheep and camels 鈥� were more willing to try to solve the puzzle but not necessarily more likely to succeed, she says.
Even so, the low number of animals per species makes it difficult to make any reliable conclusions about how each species differs from the others with regard to problem solving, says Hausberger.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
