Spatial memory allows animals to retain information regarding the location, distribution, and quality of feeding sites to optimize foraging decisions. Western gorillas inhabit a complex environment with spatiotemporal fluctuations of resource availability, prefer fruits when available, and travel long distances to reach them. Here, we examined movement patterns—such as linearity, distance, and speed of traveling—to assess whether gorillas optimize travel when reaching out-of-sight valued resources. Our results show that gorillas travel patterns are affected by the activity they perform next, the type of food they feed on, and their preference level to specific fruits, suggesting they are able to optimize foraging based on spatial knowledge of their resources. Additionally, gorillas left in the direction of the next resource as soon as they started traveling and decelerated before approaching food resources, as evidence that they have a representation of their exact locations. Moreover, home range familiarity did not influence gorillas’ movement patterns, as travel linearity in the core and periphery did not differ, suggesting that they may not depend wholly on a network of paths to navigate their habitat. These results show some overlap with chimpanzees’ spatial abilities. Differences between the two ape species exist, however, potentially reflecting more their differences in diet (degree of frugivory) rather than their cognitive abilities. Further studies should focus on determining whether gorillas are able to use shortcuts and/or approach the same goal from multiple directions to better identify the spatial abilities used by this species.

中文翻译：

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西部大猩猩（大猩猩）的空间认知：对行进路线的距离，线性和速度的分析。

空间记忆使动物能够保留有关觅食地点的位置，分布和质量的信息，以优化觅食决策。西方大猩猩生活在一个复杂的环境中，资源的可用性随时间而波动，如果有水果，他们更喜欢水果，并且长途跋涉到达那里。在这里，我们检查了运动模式，例如线性度，距离和行进速度，以评估大猩猩在到达看不见的有价值的资源时是否优化行进。我们的结果表明，大猩猩的出行方式受其下一步活动，所摄食的类型以及对特定水果的偏好程度的影响，这表明它们能够根据其资源的空间知识来优化觅食。另外，大猩猩一开始行进并减速，然后才接近食物资源，就朝着下一个资源的方向离开，以此来证明它们能准确表示其位置。此外，由于对山脉和大猩猩的移动线性没有差异，因此熟悉范围不会影响大猩猩的运动方式，这表明它们可能并不完全依赖于路径网络来导航其栖息地。这些结果表明黑猩猩的空间能力有些重叠。但是，这两种猿猴之间存在差异，这可能更多地反映了它们在饮食（节食程度）上的差异，而不是其认知能力上的差异。