Data from: Cross-modal individual recognition in wild African lions

Individual recognition is considered to have been fundamental in the evolution of complex social systems, and is thought to be a widespread ability throughout the animal kingdom. Although robust evidence for individual recognition remains limited, recent experimental paradigms that examine cross-modal processing have demonstrated individual recognition in a range of captive non-human animals. It is now highly relevant to test whether cross-modal individual recognition exists within wild populations and thus examine how it is employed during natural social interactions. We address this question by testing audio-visual cross-modal individual recognition in wild African lions (Panthera leo) using an expectancy-violation paradigm. When presented with a scenario where the playback of a loud-call (roaring) broadcast from behind a visual block is incongruent with the conspecific previously seen there, subjects responded more strongly than during the congruent scenario where the call and individual matched. These findings suggest that lions are capable of audio-visual cross-modal individual recognition and provide a useful method for studying this ability in wild populations.

个体识别（individual recognition）被认为是复杂社会系统演化的核心基础，且被视作遍布动物界的普遍能力。尽管目前关于个体识别的可靠实证证据仍较为有限，但近期用于考察跨模态（cross-modal）信息加工的实验范式，已在多种圈养非人动物中证实了个体识别能力的存在。当下，检验野生种群中是否存在跨模态个体识别，并进而探究其在自然社会互动中的运作机制，已成为极具研究价值的课题。我们采用违反预期（expectancy-violation）范式，对野生非洲狮（Panthera leo）开展视听跨模态个体识别测试，以此解答上述问题。实验中，当受试者遭遇视觉遮挡物后方播放的吼叫（roaring）与此前在此处看到的同种个体（conspecific）不匹配的场景时，其反应强度显著高于呼叫与个体匹配的一致场景。上述发现表明，非洲狮具备视听跨模态个体识别能力，同时也为在野生种群中研究该能力提供了一套可行的研究方法。