Noemi Spagnoletti

Sapienza University of Rome | la sapienza · Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin" BBCD

Appreciation of objects' affordances and planning is a hallmark of human technology. Archeological evidence suggests that Pliocene hominins selected raw material for tool making [1, 2]. Stone pounding has been considered a precursor to tool making [3, 4], and tool use by living primates provides insight into the origins of material selection by hum...

Though insectivory by large-bodied gorillas may be unexpected, researchers have reported it in all populations of gorillas studied to date. Our study of 2 well monitored groups of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at Bai Hokou in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, Central African Republic provides information on frequency and variability of termi...

To determine whether tool use varied in relation to food availability in bearded capuchin monkeys, we recorded anvil and stone hammer use in two sympatric wild groups, one of which was provisioned daily, and assessed climatic variables and availability of fruits, invertebrates and palm nuts. Capuchins used tools to crack open encased fruits, mostly...

Foraging on anthropogenic food by wildlife is a prevalent form of human–wildlife interaction. Few studies have evaluated the impact of wildlife crop foraging in Neotropical areas where small-scale agriculture is practiced and the habitat has not been heavily altered. Our objectives were 1) to evaluate the perceptions of small-scale farmers living i...

Animal traditions are increasingly threatened by human impact on natural habitats, posing a challenge to conservation policies. In northeastern Brazil, bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) inhabiting the Cerrado–Caatinga biome of Fazenda Boa Vista use stone hammers and anvils to crack open palm nuts and other encased foods. The same species inha...

Wildlife living outside protected areas share the ecosystem with humans and interact with them in various ways. Wild primates exhibit behavioural flexibility in human-influenced habitats most commonly documented as dietary adjustments, and as differences in activity, ranging, grouping patterns and social organization. Historically, most publication...

There is evidence that wild animals are able to recall key locations and associate them with navigational routes. Studies in primate navigation suggest most species navigate through the route network system, using intersections among routes as locations of decision-making. Recent approaches presume that points of directional change may be key locat...

Snakes present a hazard to primates, both as active predators and by defensive envenomation. This risk might have been a selective pressure on the evolution of primate visual and cognitive systems, leading to several behavioral traits present in human and non-human primates, such as the ability to quickly learn to fear snakes. Primates seldom prey...

As frequentes alterações dos habitats naturais promovidas pelo ser humano aumentam sua proximidade com a fauna silvestre, favorecendo, entre outras coisas, interações entre humanos e primatas não humanos. A etnoprimatologia estuda essas interações, levando em consideração que elas ocorrem há bastante tempo. É importante compreender as percepções e...

Stone tool use is observed in wild primates, which often live in areas characterized by increasing anthropogenic pressure. However, the influence of human activities on tool use in primates has not yet been properly addressed. In this pilot study, we developed a landscape suitability model to investigate nut-cracking behaviour in a wild population...

Sapajus flavius is is an endemic Neotropical primate living in northeastern Brazil, listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN due to its small population size. This species inhabits Atlantic Forest in the states of Paraiba, Pernambuco and Alagoas, but its western distribution limit is poorly defined because of the lack of data in the Caatinga dry for...

Sapajus flavius is is an endemic Neotropical primate living in northeastern Brazil, listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN due to its small population size. This species inhabits Atlantic Forest in the states of Paraiba, Pernambuco and Alagoas, but its western distribution limit is poorly defined because of the lack of data in the Caatinga dry for...

Stone tool use is observed in wild primates, which often live in areas characterized by increasing anthropogenic pressure. However, the influence of human activities on tool use in primates has not yet been properly addressed. In this pilot study, we developed a landscape suitability model to investigate nut-cracking behaviour in a wild population...

At the present time, anthropogenic activities are predominant in several environments. Tool use behavior by wild nonhuman primates is noteworthy, as it provides the possibility to clarify lithic technology evolution in human lineage. However, the conservation of this “unique” behavior is still not addressed properly, as well as the effects of human...

p>As frequentes alterações dos habitats naturais promovidas pelo ser humano aumentam sua proximidade com a fauna silvestre, favorecendo, entre outras coisas, interações entre humanos e primatas não humanos. A etnoprimatologia estuda essas interações, levando em consideração que elas ocorrem há bastante tempo. É importante compreender as percepções...

People are an inescapable aspect of most environments inhabited by nonhuman primates today. Consequently, interest has grown in how primates adjust their behavior to live in anthropogenic habitats. However, our understanding of primate behavioral flexibility and the degree to which it will enable primates to survive alongside people in the long ter...

Nut-cracking is shared by all non-human primate taxa that are known to habitually use percussive stone tools in the wild: robust capuchins (Sapajus spp.), western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), and Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea). Despite opportunistically processing nuts, Burmese long-tailed macaques predominantly us...

No semiárido nordestino, seres humanos e macacos-prego (Sapajus libidinosus) são parte do mesmo ecossistema, e podem ter interações conflituosas, como quando os macacos invadem as lavouras e causam prejuízo na produção dos moradores. Como resultado da ação antrópica, do uso não sustentável de recursos e com a expansão da agricultura extensiva, a de...

We aim to show that far-related primates like humans and the capuchin monkeys show interesting correspondences in terms of artifact characterization and categorization. We investigate this issue by using a philosophically-inspired definition of physical artifact which, developed for human artifacts, turns out to be applicable for cross-species comp...

Wild bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in the cerrado (seasonally dry savannah-like region) of Brazil routinely crack open several species of palm nuts and other hard encased fruits and seeds on level surfaces (anvils) using stones as hammers. At our field site, their nut cracking activity leaves enduring diagnostic physical remains: distinct...

Tool-use and technology are essential to the survival of human species. In recent decades the study of non-human animals tool-using behaviours has changed the way we think about the role of tools in the natural world. This developing dataset, gathered across multiple species and from multiple perspectives, is the key to understanding the adaptive b...

Selection and transport of objects to use as tools at a distant site are considered to reflect planning. Ancestral humans transported tools and tool-making materials as well as food items. Wild chimpanzees also transport selected hammer tools and nuts to anvil sites. To date, we had no other examples of selection and transport of stone tools among...

Habitually, capuchin monkeys access encased hard foods by using their canines and premolars and/or by pounding the food on hard surfaces. Instead, the wild bearded capuchins (Cebus libidinosus) of Boa Vista (Brazil) routinely crack palm fruits with tools. We measured size, weight, structure, and peak-force-at-failure of the four palm fruit species...