![]() The number of possible routes in a TSP-like problem increases exponentially as sites are added, quickly making computation of the most efficient route intractable. When returning to the start is not required, the problem is termed an optimal Hamiltonian path problem, open-TSP, or shortest path problem 3. However, finding the most efficient path connecting multiple sites requires the cognitive capacity to cope with the classic mathematical problem of the travelling salesperson (TSP), in which a set of fixed locations are each visited once before returning to the point of origin 1, 2. By locating routes that strategically connect biologically meaningful locations across space, animals may benefit from increased route efficiency during travel. ![]() Differences between strepsirrhine and cercopithecine strategies may be the result of either ecological or phylogenetic trends, and we discuss future possibilities for disentangling the two.įoraging animals face complex multi-destination routing problems as they move between food sites. However, the recursive use of routes was weak, differing from the strategies seen in well-known traplining animals. Further, we found evidence of repeated sequences of site visitation in all species, supporting previous suggestions that primates form traplines. In strepsirrhines, we found greater support for reinforcement learning of location-based decisions, such that routes improved with experience. We found a strong reliance on heuristics in cercopithecoid species, with initial routes that began near optimal and did not improve with experience. These species all developed relatively efficient route formations within the arrays but appeared to rely on variable cognitive mechanisms. We analyzed experimental data from multi-destination foraging arrays for five species, two cercopithecine monkeys (vervets, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, and Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata) and three strepsirrhines (fat-tailed dwarf lemurs, Cheirogaleus medius, grey mouse lemurs, Microcebus murinus, and aye-ayes, Daubentonia madagascariensis). ![]() Traplining behaviour-the repeated use of the same route-can be used to study how spatial memory might evolve to cope with complex routing problems in ecologically distinct taxa. When animals forage, they face complex multi-destination routing problems.
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