Elodie Freymann Marion
ID:
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Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Medicative Knowledge in Chimpanzees?
Examining Putative Modes and Mechanisms of Information Transmission Between Chimpanzees
REFNo: NS257ES
Homo sapiens are not the only species to self-medicate. Over the last few decades, self-medication has been observed in a variety of primate and non-primate species and throughout a wide range of localities (Janzen, 1978; Huffman, 2016). Non-human self-medication takes many forms and involves a variety of medicinal resources. These include self-medicative resources (SMRs) known to be used in medicinal behaviors like leaf swallowing (Wrangham & Nishida, 1983) and bitter-pith chewing (Huffman & Seifu, 1989), putative therapeutic resources (PTRs) which are irregular dietary items with known bioactive properties, ingested when an individual is ill, and medicinal foods (MFs) which are foods eaten at low frequencies in the absence of symptoms, at certain times of year when their associated medicinal properties are likely most beneficial for preventing future infection or illness (Huffman, 1997). While bioactive and limitedly nutritious botanical species remain the best studied medicinal resources, clay, termite soil, and cambium beneath peeled tree bark are also widely acknowledged as possessing medicinal properties (Pebsworth et al., 2019). In recent literature, many other resource types have been proposed as candidates for further study, including driver ants, honey, ash, and mushrooms, although no studies thus far have empirically established the intentional use of these resources by sick chimpanzees.
Although chimpanzees have been shown to transmit medicinal information to their peers in experimental settings (Huffman & Hirata, 2004; Huffman et al., 2010), the modes, mechanisms, and social learning processes through which chimpanzees transmit medicinal knowledge and behaviors remain untested in free-ranging chimpanzees. This project, titled ‘Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Medicative Knowledge in Chimpanzees? Examining Putative Modes and Mechanisms of Information Transmission Between Chimpanzees’ will consist of three studies, all of which aim to test hypotheses related to intergenerational self-medicative knowledge transmission: the modes and mechanisms facilitating this transmission, and how this knowledge disperses across communities in wild populations. This research will be carried out as part of the completion of Ms Freymann’s DPhil at the University of Oxford.
The first study, titled ‘Gestural Communication During Chimpanzee Self-Medication Events? An analysis of multi-modal signaling between self-medicating models and observers’ will examine whether or not model individuals use specific multi-modal signals and/or increased signaling frequencies to communicate medicinal information to offspring or non-kin observers. The second study, titled ‘Mapping the Self-Medicative Landscape: Do wild chimpanzees revisit medicinal resource sites when seeking treatment?’ will evaluate the presence or absence of habitually utilized SMR sites, to determine whether or not preferred locational ‘hotspots’ exist for chimpanzees within their habitat, and may function as contextual clues to alert chimpanzee observers to the potential onset of a self-medicative event. The third study, titled ‘Evaluating Inter-Community and Intra-Community Variation in Resource Selection and Self-Medicative Behaviors' will evaluate whether or not medicating individuals demonstrate inter-group and/or intra-group variation in their employment of self-medicative behaviors and medicinal resource selection, as well as whether or not social and demographic variables can predict the presence of these variants.
There are two neighboring habituated chimpanzee communities in Budongo forest, the Sonso community, with has ~65 individuals, and the more recently habituated Waibira community which has ~120 individuals. While this research will begin with the Sonso community, if this group becomes unavailable for study due to other scheduled projects, Ms Freymann will flexibly move her data collection to the Waibira community to make the study a cross-community comparison.
Research Questions
1. Gestural Communication During Chimpanzee Self-Medication Events?
• Are gestural signals used at higher frequencies during medicinal events than during normal feeding events?
• Do models use signals at higher frequencies in the presence of an observer during medicinal ingestion events than during medicinal events in which the medicating individual is alone?
• Do medicators increase signaling frequencies during medicinal events based on relatedness to observers?
• Is the proportion of ‘successful’ begging outcomes higher during medicinal events than the proportion of ‘successful’ begging outcomes during normal feeding events?
• Do signaling frequencies between individuals during medicinal events vary based on demographic characteristics or health state?
• Are there specific signals that are used during medicinal events which are not commonly used during normal feeding events?
• Do signal types between models and observers exhibited during medicinal events vary based on social relationships, demographic characteristics, resource type, or behavioral type?
2. Mapping the Self-Medicative Landscape
• Are locations where SMR or PTR ingestion events took place spatially clustered into hot spots?
• Do individuals re-use the same SMR resource hotspots when they are sick?
• Do sick individuals utilize sites with high resource abundance scores over sites where the resource is scarce?
• Do any demographic variables (age, sex and reproductive status) predict which individuals visit which medicinal hotspots?
• When sick individuals travel away from the group to self-medicate, do they choose the most efficient route, foregoing nutritious resources and normal feeding sites to get to the closest available resource, or do they ignore closer sites and return to habitually used sites?
2. Evaluating Inter-Community and Intra-Community Variation in Resource Selection and Self-Medicative Behaviors
• Across all individuals in the community, are specific sickness behaviors correlated with an increase in ingestion of any specific resource type or species?
• Does there appear to be behavioral variation during medicinal events?
• If variation does exist, can horizontal or vertical transmission predict the diffusion pathways of the behavioral variants?
• Does variation in self-medicative behavioral techniques or resource selection appear to be cultural?
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USA |
2021-07-05 |
2024-07-05 |
Natural Sciences |
Non-Clinical Trial |
Degree Award |
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Amos Kijjambu
ID:
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EVALUATION OF THE BARRIERS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND VACCINE HESITANCY FOR CHILDHOOD IMMUNISATIONS IN URBAN AREAS; A CASE STUDY OF NANSANA MUNICIPALITY, UGANDA.
REFNo: HS1507ES
General Objective
• To assess the barriers, opportunities, and vaccines hesitancy for childhood immunizations in urban areas to design relevant interventions to improve immunization coverage and improve the health outcomes of children.
Specific Objectives
• To establish the immunization coverage rates in Nansana municipality for children aged under two years.
• To identify factors (parents/guardians-child, health system factors) associated with uptake of immunization for preventable childhood illnesses in Nansana Municipality, Uganda.
• To establish the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy among parents/guardians of children aged <24 months in Nansana Municipality.
• To identify the determinants of vaccine hesitancy among the parents/guardians of children aged < 24 months in Nansana Municipality.
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Uganda |
2021-07-05 |
2024-07-05 |
Medical and Health Sciences |
Non-Clinical Trial |
Degree Award |
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