Cognitive differences between two Zebra species (Equus burchelli chapmanni and E. grevyi)-The possible role of fission-fusion dynamics.

In animals, high fission-fusion dynamics (FFD) characterize groups in which individuals frequently split into subgroups of different size and composition. Through evolution, this might have led to an increase in specific cognitive skills that allowed individuals to better cope with the challenges they usually experience under such social conditions. This hypothesis has rarely been tested empirically, and therefore we compared 2 species of zebras to assess potential differences in their cognitive skills. The Chapman's zebras (Equus burchelli chapmanni) typically show lower levels of FFD associated with stable multilevel social groups, whereas Grevy's zebras (Equus grevyi) show higher levels of FFD and therefore live in less cohesive groups. We tested 8 Grevy's zebras and 5 Chapman's zebras in experimental tasks assessing their object permanence, short-term memory, inference, and quantity discrimination skills. Our results showed that Grevy's zebras, typically showing higher FFD, performed better than Chapman's zebras, which live in more cohesive groups, in tasks requiring complex inference skills and marginally in quantity discrimination skills. These findings provide preliminary support to the hypothesis that high FFD may be linked to the enhancement of specific cognitive skills also in taxa other than primates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).