1
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Shelton DS, Suriyampola PS, Dinges ZM, Glaholt SP, Shaw JR, Martins EP. Plants buffer some of the effects of a pair of cadmium-exposed zebrafish on the un-exposed majority. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY 2024; 107:104419. [PMID: 38508506 PMCID: PMC11042042 DOI: 10.1016/j.etap.2024.104419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Revised: 03/10/2024] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
Certain individuals have a disproportionate effect on group responses. Characteristics may include susceptibility to pollutants, such as cadmium (Cd), a potent trace metal. Here, we show how a pair of Cd-exposed individuals can impact the behavior of unexposed groups. We used behavioral assessments to characterize the extent of the effects of the Cd-exposed individuals on group boldness, cohesion, foraging, activity, and responses to plants. We found that groups with a pair of Cd-exposed fish remained closer to novel stimuli and plants than did groups with untreated (control) fish. The presence of plants reduced Cd-induced differences in shoal cohesion and delays feeding in male shoals. Shoals with Cd- and water-treated fish were equally active. The results suggest that fish acutely exposed to environmentally relevant Cd concentrations can have profound effects on the un-exposed majority. However, the presence of plants may mitigate the effects of contaminants on some aspects of social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delia S Shelton
- Department of Biology, University of Miami, 1301 Memorial Dr, Coral Gables, FL 33134, USA.
| | - Piyumika S Suriyampola
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, 427 East Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Zoe M Dinges
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, 1001 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Stephen P Glaholt
- O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 1315 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Joseph R Shaw
- O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 1315 E 10th St, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Emília P Martins
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, 427 East Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
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2
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Aikens EO, Nourani E, Fiedler W, Wikelski M, Flack A. Learning shapes the development of migratory behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2306389121. [PMID: 38437530 PMCID: PMC10962998 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306389121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2024] Open
Abstract
How animals refine migratory behavior over their lifetime (i.e., the ontogeny of migration) is an enduring question with important implications for predicting the adaptive capacity of migrants in a changing world. Yet, our inability to monitor the movements of individuals from early life onward has limited our understanding of the ontogeny of migration. The exploration-refinement hypothesis posits that learning shapes the ontogeny of migration in long-lived species, resulting in greater exploratory behavior early in life followed by more rapid and direct movement during later life. We test the exploration-refinement hypothesis by examining how white storks (Ciconia ciconia) balance energy, time, and information as they develop and refine migratory behavior during the first years of life. Here, we show that young birds reduce energy expenditure during flight while also increasing information gain by exploring new places during migration. As the birds age and gain more experience, older individuals stop exploring new places and instead move more quickly and directly, resulting in greater energy expenditure during migratory flight. During spring migration, individuals innovated novel shortcuts during the transition from early life into adulthood, suggesting a reliance on spatial memory acquired through learning. These incremental refinements in migratory behavior provide support for the importance of individual learning within a lifetime in the ontogeny of long-distance migration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen O. Aikens
- School of Computing, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY82071
- Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY82072
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell78315, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78468, Germany
| | - Elham Nourani
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell78315, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78457, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Fiedler
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell78315, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78457, Germany
| | - Martin Wikelski
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell78315, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78457, Germany
| | - Andrea Flack
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell78315, Germany
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78468, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78457, Germany
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3
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Sassi Y, Nouzières B, Scacco M, Tremblay Y, Duriez O, Robira B. The use of social information in vulture flight decisions. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20231729. [PMID: 38471548 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Animals rely on a balance of personal and social information to decide when and where to move next in order to access a desired resource. The benefits from cueing on conspecifics to reduce uncertainty about resource availability can be rapidly overcome by the risks of within-group competition, often exacerbated toward low-ranked individuals. Being obligate soarers, relying on thermal updraughts to search for carcasses around which competition can be fierce, vultures represent ideal models to investigate the balance between personal and social information during foraging movements. Linking dominance hierarchy, social affinities and meteorological conditions to movement decisions of eight captive vultures, Gyps spp., released for free flights in natural soaring conditions, we found that they relied on social information (i.e. other vultures using/having used the thermals) to find the next thermal updraught, especially in unfavourable flight conditions. Low-ranked individuals were more likely to disregard social cues when deciding where to go next, possibly to minimize the competitive risk of social aggregation. These results exemplify the architecture of decision-making during flight in social birds. It suggests that the environmental context, the context of risk and the social system as a whole calibrate the balance between personal and social information use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yohan Sassi
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Martina Scacco
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Yann Tremblay
- Marine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (MARBEC), University of Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, France
| | - Olivier Duriez
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Benjamin Robira
- Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Italy
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4
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Shelton DS, Suriyampola PS, Dinges ZM, Glaholt SP, Shaw JR, Martins EP. A Pair of Cadmium-exposed Zebrafish Affect Boldness and Landmark use in the Un-exposed Majority. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.09.566440. [PMID: 38014116 PMCID: PMC10680604 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.09.566440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Some individuals have a disproportionate effect on group responses. These individuals may possess distinct attributes that differentiate them from others. These characteristics may include susceptibility to contaminant exposure such as cadmium, a potent trace metal present in water and food. Here, we tested whether a pair of cadmium-exposed individuals could exert an impact on the behavior of the unexposed majority. We used behavioral assessments to characterize the extent of the effects of the cadmium-exposed pair on group boldness, cohesion, activity and responses to landmarks. We found that groups with a pair of cadmium-exposed fish approached and remained closer to novel stimuli and landmarks than did groups with pairs of fish treated with uncontaminated water (control). Shoals with cadmium and water treated fish exhibited similar levels of cohesion and activity. The results suggest that fish acutely exposed to environmentally-relevant cadmium concentrations can have profound effects on the un-exposed majority.
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5
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Collet J, Morford J, Lewin P, Bonnet-Lebrun AS, Sasaki T, Biro D. Mechanisms of collective learning: how can animal groups improve collective performance when repeating a task? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220060. [PMID: 36802785 PMCID: PMC9939276 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/23/2022] [Indexed: 02/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Learning is ubiquitous in animals: individuals can use their experience to fine-tune behaviour and thus to better adapt to the environment during their lifetime. Observations have accumulated that, at the collective level, groups can also use their experience to improve collective performance. Yet, despite apparent simplicity, the links between individual learning capacities and a collective's performance can be extremely complex. Here we propose a centralized and broadly applicable framework to begin classifying this complexity. Focusing principally on groups with stable composition, we first identify three distinct ways through which groups can improve their collective performance when repeating a task: each member learning to better solve the task on its own, members learning about each other to better respond to one another and members learning to improve their complementarity. We show through selected empirical examples, simulations and theoretical treatments that these three categories identify distinct mechanisms with distinct consequences and predictions. These mechanisms extend well beyond current social learning and collective decision-making theories in explaining collective learning. Finally, our approach, definitions and categories help generate new empirical and theoretical research avenues, including charting the expected distribution of collective learning capacities across taxa and its links to social stability and evolution. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julien Collet
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK
- Department of Zoology, Marine Apex Predator Research Unit, Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth-Gqeberha 6031, South Africa
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS – La Rochelle Université, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France
| | - Joe Morford
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK
| | - Patrick Lewin
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK
| | - Anne-Sophie Bonnet-Lebrun
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS – La Rochelle Université, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France
| | - Takao Sasaki
- Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
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6
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Sasaki T, Masuda N, Mann RP, Biro D. Empirical test of the many-wrongs hypothesis reveals weighted averaging of individual routes in pigeon flocks. iScience 2022; 25:105076. [PMID: 36147962 PMCID: PMC9485075 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 03/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The 'many-wrongs hypothesis' predicts that groups improve their decision-making performance by aggregating members' diverse opinions. Although this has been considered one of the major benefits of collective movement and migration, whether and how multiple inputs are in fact aggregated for superior directional accuracy has not been empirically verified in non-human animals. Here we showed that larger homing pigeon flocks had significantly more efficient (i.e. shorter) homing routes than smaller flocks, consistent with previous findings and with the predictions of the many-wrongs hypothesis. However, detailed analysis showed that flock routes were not simply averages of individual routes, but instead that pigeons that more faithfully recapitulated their routes during individual flights had a proportionally greater influence on their flocks' routes. We discuss the implications of our results for possible mechanisms of collective learning as well as for the definition of leadership in animals solving navigational tasks collectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takao Sasaki
- Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
- Corresponding author
| | - Naoki Masuda
- Department of Mathematics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
- Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineer Program, University of Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
| | - Richard P. Mann
- Department of Statistics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
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7
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Viewing animal migration through a social lens. Trends Ecol Evol 2022; 37:985-996. [PMID: 35931583 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Revised: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Evidence of social learning is growing across the animal kingdom. Researchers have long hypothesized that social interactions play a key role in many animal migrations, but strong empirical support is scarce except in a few unique systems and species. In this review, we aim to catalyze advances in the study of social migrations by synthesizing research across disciplines and providing a framework for understanding when, how, and why social influences shape the decisions animals make during migration. Integrating research across the fields of social learning and migration ecology will advance our understanding of the complex behavioral phenomena of animal migration and help to inform conservation of animal migrations in a changing world.
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8
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Múgica J, Torrents J, Cristín J, Puy A, Miguel MC, Pastor-Satorras R. Scale-free behavioral cascades and effective leadership in schooling fish. Sci Rep 2022; 12:10783. [PMID: 35750698 PMCID: PMC9232620 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-14337-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Behavioral contagion and the presence of behavioral cascades are natural features in groups of animals showing collective motion, such as schooling fish or grazing herbivores. Here we study empirical behavioral cascades observed in fish schools defined as avalanches of consecutive large changes in the heading direction of the trajectory of fish. In terms of a minimum turning angle introduced to define a large change, avalanches are characterized by distributions of size and duration showing scale-free signatures, reminiscent of self-organized critical behavior. We observe that avalanches are generally triggered by a small number of fish, which act as effective leaders that induce large rearrangements of the group's trajectory. This observation motivates the proposal of a simple model, based in the classical Vicsek model of collective motion, in which a given individual acts as a leader subject to random heading reorientations. The model reproduces qualitatively the empirical avalanche behavior observed in real schools, and hints towards a connection between effective leadership, long range interactions and avalanche behavior in collective movement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Múgica
- Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord B4, 08034, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Torrents
- Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord B4, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.,Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Javier Cristín
- Istituto Sistemi Complessi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, UOS Sapienza, 00185, Rome, Italy.,Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' Sapienza, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Andreu Puy
- Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord B4, 08034, Barcelona, Spain
| | - M Carmen Miguel
- Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028, Barcelona, Spain. .,Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Romualdo Pastor-Satorras
- Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Nord B4, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
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9
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Fernández Velasco P. Group navigation and procedural metacognition. PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2022.2062316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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10
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Goll Y, Bordes C, Weissman YA, Shnitzer I, Beukeboom R, Ilany A, Koren L, Geffen E. Sex-associated and context-dependent leadership in the rock hyrax. iScience 2022; 25:104063. [PMID: 35359807 PMCID: PMC8961210 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Revised: 12/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
In many mammalian species, both sexes may take leadership role, but different traits may play a role in determining variation within species. Here we examine the effect of sex on leadership. We present three complementary datasets derived from a well-studied population of wild rock hyrax (Procavia capensis). The findings demonstrated that male and female rock hyraxes take on different leadership positions, depending on the context. When risk is moderate, more likely to lead are younger resident males, which experience high cortisol and lower testosterone levels. However, during acute predation scenarios, more likely to lead are males with lower centrality status. We suggest that hyrax males exhibit risky behaviors that may reflect their need for self-advertisement. In contrast, leadership among group females is more equally distributed. Females have little to gain from risky actions due to the lack of competition among them, but nonetheless take leadership positions. Different traits play a role in hyrax male and female leaders, in different contexts On moderate risk, younger resident males with high cortisol and low testosterone lead During predation scenario, lower centrality status males lead Among group females, leadership is more equally distributed
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Affiliation(s)
- Yael Goll
- School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Camille Bordes
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Yishai A. Weissman
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Inbar Shnitzer
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Rosanne Beukeboom
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Amiyaal Ilany
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Lee Koren
- The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Eli Geffen
- School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Corresponding author
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11
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Pigeon leadership hierarchies are not dependent on environmental contexts or individual phenotypes. Behav Processes 2022; 198:104629. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
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12
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Valentini G, Pavlic TP, Walker SI, Pratt SC, Biro D, Sasaki T. Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons. eLife 2021; 10:e68653. [PMID: 34928230 PMCID: PMC8687659 DOI: 10.7554/elife.68653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Group-living animals that rely on stable foraging or migratory routes can develop behavioural traditions to pass route information down to inexperienced individuals. Striking a balance between exploitation of social information and exploration for better alternatives is essential to prevent the spread of maladaptive traditions. We investigated this balance during cumulative route development in the homing pigeon Columba livia. We quantified information transfer within pairs of birds in a transmission-chain experiment and determined how birds with different levels of experience contributed to the exploration-exploitation trade-off. Newly introduced naïve individuals were initially more likely to initiate exploration than experienced birds, but the pair soon settled into a pattern of alternating leadership with both birds contributing equally. Experimental pairs showed an oscillating pattern of exploration over generations that might facilitate the discovery of more efficient routes. Our results introduce a new perspective on the roles of leadership and information pooling in the context of collective learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Valentini
- Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, Tempe, United States
| | - Theodore P Pavlic
- Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, School of Sustainability, Athens, United States
- Arizona State University, School of Complex Adaptive Systems, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex Systems, Tempe, United States
| | - Sara Imari Walker
- Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, United States
- Arizona State University, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Tempe, United States
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, United States
| | - Stephen C Pratt
- Arizona State University, Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Tempe, United States
| | - Dora Biro
- University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, Oxford, United States
- University of Rochester, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Rochester, United States
| | - Takao Sasaki
- University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology, Athens, United States
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13
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Gokcekus S, Firth JA, Regan C, Cole EF, Lamers KP, Sheldon BC. Drivers of passive leadership in wild songbirds: species-level differences and spatio-temporally dependent intraspecific effects. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-03103-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Collective behaviors are typical for many social species and can have fitness benefits for participating individuals. To maximize the benefits obtained from group living, individuals must coordinate their behaviors to some extent. What are the mechanisms that make certain individuals more likely to initiate collective behaviors, for example, by taking a risk to initially access a resource (i.e., to act as “leaders”)? Here, we examine leading behavior in a natural population of great tits and blue tits. We use automated feeding stations to monitor the feeder visits of tagged individuals within mixed-species flocks, with a small cost (waiting < 2 s) associated with the initial unlocking of the feeder. We find that great tits, males, and individuals with high activity levels were more likely to be leading in each of their feeder visits. Using a null model approach, we demonstrate that the effects of sex and activity on passive leading behavior can be explained by patterns of spatial and temporal occurrence. In other words, these effects can be explained by the times and locations of when individuals visit rather than the actual order of arrival. Hence, an analysis of the causes of leading behavior is needed to separate the effects of different processes. We highlight the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind leading behavior and discuss directions for future experimental work to gain a better understanding of the causes of leadership in natural populations.
Significance statement
Many species are social and engage in collective behaviors. To benefit from group actions, individuals need to fulfill different roles. Here, we examine leading behavior during feeding events; who feeds first when birds arrive at a resource? In mixed-species flocks of passerines, great tits (the larger and more dominant species), males, and individuals with higher levels of activity lead more often than blue tits, females, and individuals with lower levels of activity. While the species effect remains even when we control for the locations and dates of individual feeder visits, the effects of sex and activity are dependent on when and where birds choose to feed.
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15
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Kashetsky T, Avgar T, Dukas R. The Cognitive Ecology of Animal Movement: Evidence From Birds and Mammals. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.724887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognition, defined as the processes concerned with the acquisition, retention and use of information, underlies animals’ abilities to navigate their local surroundings, embark on long-distance seasonal migrations, and socially learn information relevant to movement. Hence, in order to fully understand and predict animal movement, researchers must know the cognitive mechanisms that generate such movement. Work on a few model systems indicates that most animals possess excellent spatial learning and memory abilities, meaning that they can acquire and later recall information about distances and directions among relevant objects. Similarly, field work on several species has revealed some of the mechanisms that enable them to navigate over distances of up to several thousand kilometers. Key behaviors related to movement such as the choice of nest location, home range location and migration route are often affected by parents and other conspecifics. In some species, such social influence leads to the formation of aggregations, which in turn may lead to further social learning about food locations or other resources. Throughout the review, we note a variety of topics at the interface of cognition and movement that invite further investigation. These include the use of social information embedded in trails, the likely important roles of soundscapes and smellscapes, the mechanisms that large mammals rely on for long-distance migration, and the effects of expertise acquired over extended periods.
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16
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Calvo Martín M, Eeckhout M, Deneubourg JL, Nicolis SC. Consensus driven by a minority in heterogenous groups of the cockroach Periplaneta american a. iScience 2021; 24:102723. [PMID: 34258556 PMCID: PMC8254023 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2020] [Revised: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Many social species are able to perform collective decisions and reach consensus. However, how the interplay between social interactions, the diversity of preferences among the group members and the group size affects these dynamics is usually overlooked. The collective choice between odourous and odorless shelters is tested for the following three groups of social cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) which are solitary foragers: naive (individuals preferring the odorous shelter), conditioned (individuals without preference), and mixed (combining, unevenly, conditioned, and naive individuals). The robustness of the consensus is not affected by the naive individuals' proportion, but the rate and the frequency of selection of the odorous shelter are correlated to this proportion. In mixed groups, the naive individuals act as influencers. Simulations based on the mechanisms highlighted in our experiments predict that the consensus emerges only for intermediate group sizes. The universality of these mechanisms suggests that such phenomena are widely present in social systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariano Calvo Martín
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli), Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe 155, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department de Biologie des Organismes, Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Solbosch, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Max Eeckhout
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli), Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe 155, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department de Biologie des Organismes, Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Solbosch, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jean-Louis Deneubourg
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli), Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe 155, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Stamatios C Nicolis
- Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems (Cenoli), Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, Boulevard du Triomphe 155, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
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17
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18
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Ogawa S, Pfaff DW, Parhar IS. Fish as a model in social neuroscience: conservation and diversity in the social brain network. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:999-1020. [PMID: 33559323 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2019] [Revised: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 01/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Mechanisms for fish social behaviours involve a social brain network (SBN) which is evolutionarily conserved among vertebrates. However, considerable diversity is observed in the actual behaviour patterns amongst nearly 30000 fish species. The huge variation found in socio-sexual behaviours and strategies is likely generated by a morphologically and genetically well-conserved small forebrain system. Hence, teleost fish provide a useful model to study the fundamental mechanisms underlying social brain functions. Herein we review the foundations underlying fish social behaviours including sensory, hormonal, molecular and neuroanatomical features. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons clearly play important roles, but the participation of vasotocin and isotocin is also highlighted. Genetic investigations of developing fish brain have revealed the molecular complexity of neural development of the SBN. In addition to straightforward social behaviours such as sex and aggression, new experiments have revealed higher order and unique phenomena such as social eavesdropping and social buffering in fish. Finally, observations interpreted as 'collective cognition' in fish can likely be explained by careful observation of sensory determinants and analyses using the dynamics of quantitative scaling. Understanding of the functions of the SBN in fish provide clues for understanding the origin and evolution of higher social functions in vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Ogawa
- Brain Research Institute, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, 47500, Malaysia
| | - Donald W Pfaff
- Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, U.S.A
| | - Ishwar S Parhar
- Brain Research Institute, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, 47500, Malaysia
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19
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Cook A(S, Zill A, Meyer B. Observing leadership as behavior in teams and herds – An ethological approach to shared leadership research. THE LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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20
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Wang C, Pan R, Wang X, Qi X, Zhao H, Guo S, Ren Y, Fu W, Zhu Z, Li B. Decision-making process during collective movement initiation in golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana). Sci Rep 2020; 10:480. [PMID: 31949226 PMCID: PMC6965115 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57191-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2019] [Accepted: 12/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Collective decision-making is important for coordination and synchronization of the activities among group-living animals and the mechanisms guiding such procedure involve a great variety of characteristics of behavior and motivation. This study provides some evidence investigating collective movement initiation in a multi-level social band of the golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) located in the Mts. Qinling, China. We collect 1223 datum records relevant to decision initiation from six OMUs. The results indicate that collective movement initiation could be divided into two continual but relatively independent processes: decisions on moving direction and movement implementation. In both processes, adult individuals are more likely to initiate the decision-making, while other adults vote on initiator's preference, with a threshold, a supporting number required for a success. Thus, voting behavior and quorum fulfillment contribute to a successful decision-making. Adult individuals play important role in making decisions for moving direction and implementation. For a successful collective movement initiation, the individuals being more central in grooming network initiate decisions more frequently than the others, and attract voters more easily. Furthermore, following the initiation, at least four positive voters are required for a direction decision and at least three positive voters are needed for the decision on movement implementation, which could be considered as the threshold of quorum numbers required for a successful decision. This study has provided some very interesting information and scientific evidence in understanding social structure and behaviors of the nonhuman primates with a social structure very similar to humans'. Thus, some results can directly be referred to the comprehension of human social structure and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengliang Wang
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Ruliang Pan
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Xiaowei Wang
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Xiaoguang Qi
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Haitao Zhao
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Songtao Guo
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Yi Ren
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Weiwei Fu
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Zirui Zhu
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Baoguo Li
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Xi'an, 710032, China.
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China.
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21
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Oudman T, Laland K, Ruxton G, Tombre I, Shimmings P, Prop J. Young Birds Switch but Old Birds Lead: How Barnacle Geese Adjust Migratory Habits to Environmental Change. Front Ecol Evol 2020. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
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22
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Abstract
As a form of adaptive plasticity that allows organisms to shift their phenotype toward the optimum, learning is inherently a source of developmental bias. Learning may be of particular significance to the evolutionary biology community because it allows animals to generate adaptively biased novel behavior tuned to the environment and, through social learning, to propagate behavioral traits to other individuals, also in an adaptively biased manner. We describe several types of developmental bias manifest in learning, including an adaptive bias, historical bias, origination bias, and transmission bias, stressing that these can influence evolutionary dynamics through generating nonrandom phenotypic variation and/or nonrandom environmental states. Theoretical models and empirical data have established that learning can impose direction on adaptive evolution, affect evolutionary rates (both speeding up and slowing down responses to selection under different conditions) and outcomes, influence the probability of populations reaching global optimum, and affect evolvability. Learning is characterized by highly specific, path-dependent interactions with the (social and physical) environment, often resulting in new phenotypic outcomes. Consequently, learning regularly introduces novelty into phenotype space. These considerations imply that learning may commonly generate plasticity first evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin N Laland
- School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK
| | - Wataru Toyokawa
- School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK.,Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Thomas Oudman
- School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK.,Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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23
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Lucon-Xiccato T, Anastasia N, Mazzoldi C, Griggio M. Familiarity and sex modulate size-dependent following behaviour in the Mediterranean killifish. Naturwissenschaften 2019; 106:31. [PMID: 31161277 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-019-1630-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Revised: 05/24/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Living in a group offers the chance to follow the choices and the behaviours of other individuals. Following a group mate might confer fitness advantages if the group mate knows about resources such as food or shelters. Shoaling fish often follow larger group mates which, in most species, are generally older and therefore more experienced. Yet, the effect of individuals' characteristics other than size on following behaviour remains to be understood. For example, familiar fish and female shoals have been reported as more cohesive, which might be due to a differential tendency to follow in relation to familiarity and sex. Here, we investigated whether size, familiarity, sex, and the interaction between these factors affect fish following behaviour. We observed pairs of differently sized Mediterranean killifish, Aphanius fasciatus, exploring a new environment, and we recorded whether the rear fish followed the front fish when the latter changed swimming direction. In female and male pairs, and in unfamiliar pairs, smaller fish were more likely to follow the directional change of the larger fish than vice versa. In mixed-sex pairs and in familiar pairs, however, size did not affect following behaviour and larger fish followed as much as smaller fish did. Our results revealed that killifish's following decisions are determined by the size of the individuals, their level of familiarity, and their sex. These characteristics may have a notable impact on the behaviour of fish groups in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato
- Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, L. Borsari 46, 44121, Ferrara, Italy.
- Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy.
| | | | | | - Matteo Griggio
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy
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24
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Sasaki T, Mann RP, Warren KN, Herbert T, Wilson T, Biro D. Personality and the collective: bold homing pigeons occupy higher leadership ranks in flocks. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 373:rstb.2017.0038. [PMID: 29581403 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
While collective movement is ecologically widespread and conveys numerous benefits on individuals, it also poses a coordination problem: who controls the group's movements? The role that animal 'personalities' play in this question has recently become a focus of research interest. Although many animal groups have distributed leadership (i.e. multiple individuals influence collective decisions), studies linking personality and leadership have focused predominantly on the group's single most influential individual. In this study, we investigate the relationship between personality and the influence of multiple leaders on collective movement using homing pigeons, Columba livia, a species known to display complex multilevel leadership hierarchies during flock flights. Our results show that more exploratory (i.e. 'bold') birds are more likely to occupy higher ranks in the leadership hierarchy and thus have more influence on the direction of collective movement than less exploratory (i.e. 'shy') birds during both free flights around their lofts and homing flights from a distant site. Our data also show that bold pigeons fly faster than shy birds during solo flights. We discuss our results in light of theories about the evolution of personality, with specific reference to the adaptive value of heterogeneity in animal groups.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takao Sasaki
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Richard P Mann
- Department of Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Katherine N Warren
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tristian Herbert
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tara Wilson
- University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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25
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Berdahl AM, Kao AB, Flack A, Westley PAH, Codling EA, Couzin ID, Dell AI, Biro D. Collective animal navigation and migratory culture: from theoretical models to empirical evidence. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 373:rstb.2017.0009. [PMID: 29581394 PMCID: PMC5882979 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals often travel in groups, and their navigational decisions can be influenced by social interactions. Both theory and empirical observations suggest that such collective navigation can result in individuals improving their ability to find their way and could be one of the key benefits of sociality for these species. Here, we provide an overview of the potential mechanisms underlying collective navigation, review the known, and supposed, empirical evidence for such behaviour and highlight interesting directions for future research. We further explore how both social and collective learning during group navigation could lead to the accumulation of knowledge at the population level, resulting in the emergence of migratory culture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Collective movement ecology’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew M Berdahl
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA .,School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Albert B Kao
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Andrea Flack
- Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Peter A H Westley
- Department of Fisheries, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
| | - Edward A Codling
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK
| | - Iain D Couzin
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.,Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany.,Chair of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Anthony I Dell
- National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, Alton, IL 62024, USA.,Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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26
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Pruitt JN, Berdahl A, Riehl C, Pinter-Wollman N, Moeller HV, Pringle EG, Aplin LM, Robinson EJH, Grilli J, Yeh P, Savage VM, Price MH, Garland J, Gilby IC, Crofoot MC, Doering GN, Hobson EA. Social tipping points in animal societies. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:20181282. [PMID: 30232162 PMCID: PMC6170811 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2018] [Accepted: 08/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal social groups are complex systems that are likely to exhibit tipping points-which are defined as drastic shifts in the dynamics of systems that arise from small changes in environmental conditions-yet this concept has not been carefully applied to these systems. Here, we summarize the concepts behind tipping points and describe instances in which they are likely to occur in animal societies. We also offer ways in which the study of social tipping points can open up new lines of inquiry in behavioural ecology and generate novel questions, methods, and approaches in animal behaviour and other fields, including community and ecosystem ecology. While some behaviours of living systems are hard to predict, we argue that probing tipping points across animal societies and across tiers of biological organization-populations, communities, ecosystems-may help to reveal principles that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada
| | - Andrew Berdahl
- School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
| | - Christina Riehl
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Noa Pinter-Wollman
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Holly V Moeller
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | | | - Lucy M Aplin
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, Radolfzell, 78315, Germany
| | - Elva J H Robinson
- Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | | | - Pamela Yeh
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Van M Savage
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | | | | | - Ian C Gilby
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Margaret C Crofoot
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Grant N Doering
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada
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27
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Flack A, Nagy M, Fiedler W, Couzin ID, Wikelski M. From local collective behavior to global migratory patterns in white storks. Science 2018; 360:911-914. [PMID: 29798883 DOI: 10.1126/science.aap7781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2017] [Accepted: 04/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Soaring migrant birds exploit columns of rising air (thermals) to cover large distances with minimal energy. Using social information while locating thermals may benefit such birds, but examining collective movements in wild migrants has been a major challenge for researchers. We investigated the group movements of a flock of 27 naturally migrating juvenile white storks by using high-resolution GPS and accelerometers. Analyzing individual and group movements on multiple scales revealed that a small number of leaders navigated to and explored thermals, whereas followers benefited from their movements. Despite this benefit, followers often left thermals earlier and at lower height, and consequently they had to flap considerably more. Followers also migrated less far annually than did leaders. We provide insights into the interactions between freely flying social migrants and the costs and benefits of collective movement in natural populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Flack
- Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany. .,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Máté Nagy
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. .,Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany.,MTA-ELTE Statistical and Biological Physics Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Wolfgang Fiedler
- Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Iain D Couzin
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.,Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Martin Wikelski
- Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
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28
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Garland J, Berdahl AM, Sun J, Bollt EM. Anatomy of leadership in collective behaviour. CHAOS (WOODBURY, N.Y.) 2018; 28:075308. [PMID: 30070518 DOI: 10.1063/1.5024395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 05/30/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the mechanics behind the coordinated movement of mobile animal groups (collective motion) provides key insights into their biology and ecology, while also yielding algorithms for bio-inspired technologies and autonomous systems. It is becoming increasingly clear that many mobile animal groups are composed of heterogeneous individuals with differential levels and types of influence over group behaviors. The ability to infer this differential influence, or leadership, is critical to understanding group functioning in these collective animal systems. Due to the broad interpretation of leadership, many different measures and mathematical tools are used to describe and infer "leadership," e.g., position, causality, influence, and information flow. But a key question remains: which, if any, of these concepts actually describes leadership? We argue that instead of asserting a single definition or notion of leadership, the complex interaction rules and dynamics typical of a group imply that leadership itself is not merely a binary classification (leader or follower), but rather, a complex combination of many different components. In this paper, we develop an anatomy of leadership, identify several principal components, and provide a general mathematical framework for discussing leadership. With the intricacies of this taxonomy in mind, we present a set of leadership-oriented toy models that should be used as a proving ground for leadership inference methods going forward. We believe this multifaceted approach to leadership will enable a broader understanding of leadership and its inference from data in mobile animal groups and beyond.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jie Sun
- Department of Mathematics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA
| | - Erik M Bollt
- Department of Mathematics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA
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29
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Ward AJW, Herbert-Read JE, Schaerf TM, Seebacher F. The physiology of leadership in fish shoals: leaders have lower maximal metabolic rates and lower aerobic scope. J Zool (1987) 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- A. J. W. Ward
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW Australia
| | - J. E. Herbert-Read
- Zoologiska institutionen: Etologi; Stockholm University; Stockholm Sweden
| | - T. M. Schaerf
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW Australia
- School of Science and Technology; University of New England; Armidale NSW Australia
| | - F. Seebacher
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW Australia
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30
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Pruitt JN, Wright CM, Lichtenstein JLL, Chism GT, McEwen BL, Kamath A, Pinter-Wollman N. Selection for Collective Aggressiveness Favors Social Susceptibility in Social Spiders. Curr Biol 2018; 28:100-105.e4. [PMID: 29276129 PMCID: PMC5871622 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.11.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2017] [Revised: 09/29/2017] [Accepted: 11/16/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Particularly socially influential individuals are present in many groups [1-8], but it is unclear whether their emergence is determined by their social influence versus the social susceptibility of others [9]. The social spider Stegodyphus dumicola shows regional variation in apparent leader-follower dynamics. We use this variation to evaluate the relative contributions of leader social influence versus follower social susceptibility in driving this social order. Using chimeric colonies that combine potential leaders and followers, we discover that leader-follower dynamics emerge from the site-specific social susceptibility of followers. We further show that the presence of leaders increases colony survival in environments where leader-follower dynamics occur. Thus, leadership is driven by the "social susceptibility" of the population majority, rather than the social influence of key group members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marne Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
| | - Colin M Wright
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marne Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - James L L Lichtenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marne Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Gregory T Chism
- Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology and Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - Brendan L McEwen
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 37906, USA
| | - Ambika Kamath
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marne Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Noa Pinter-Wollman
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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31
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Watts I, Nagy M, Burt de Perera T, Biro D. Misinformed leaders lose influence over pigeon flocks. Biol Lett 2017; 12:rsbl.2016.0544. [PMID: 27624797 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In animal groups where certain individuals have disproportionate influence over collective decisions, the whole group's performance may suffer if these individuals possess inaccurate information. Whether in such situations leaders can be replaced in their roles by better-informed group mates represents an important question in understanding the adaptive consequences of collective decision-making. Here, we use a clock-shifting procedure to predictably manipulate the directional error in navigational information possessed by established leaders within hierarchically structured flocks of homing pigeons (Columba livia). We demonstrate that in the majority of cases when leaders hold inaccurate information they lose their influence over the flock. In these cases, inaccurate information is filtered out through the rearrangement of hierarchical positions, preventing errors by former leaders from propagating down the hierarchy. Our study demonstrates that flexible decision-making structures can be valuable in situations where 'bad' information is introduced by otherwise influential individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isobel Watts
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Máté Nagy
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany MTA-ELTE Statistical and Biological Physics Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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32
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McAroe CL, Craig CM, Holland RA. Shoaling promotes place over response learning but does not facilitate individual learning of that strategy in zebrafish (Danio rerio). BMC ZOOL 2017. [DOI: 10.1186/s40850-017-0019-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
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33
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Marshall JAR, Brown G, Radford AN. Individual Confidence-Weighting and Group Decision-Making. Trends Ecol Evol 2017; 32:636-645. [PMID: 28739079 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2016] [Revised: 06/05/2017] [Accepted: 06/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Group-living species frequently pool individual information so as to reach consensus decisions such as when and where to move, or whether a predator is present. Such opinion-pooling has been demonstrated empirically, and theoretical models have been proposed to explain why group decisions are more reliable than individual decisions. Behavioural ecology theory frequently assumes that all individuals have equal decision-making abilities, but decision theory relaxes this assumption and has been tested in human groups. We summarise relevant theory and argue for its applicability to collective animal decisions. We consider selective pressure on confidence-weighting in groups of related and unrelated individuals. We also consider which species and behaviours may provide evidence of confidence-weighting, paying particular attention to the sophisticated vocal communication of cooperative breeders.
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Affiliation(s)
- James A R Marshall
- Department of Computer Science, and Sheffield Robotics, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 211 Portobello, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK.
| | - Gavin Brown
- School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Andrew N Radford
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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Abstract
Decision-making in uncertain environments requires animals to evaluate, contrast and integrate various information sources to choose appropriate actions. In consensus-making groups, quorum responses are commonly used to combine private and social information, leading to both robust and flexible decisions. Here we show that in house-hunting ant colonies, individuals fine-tune the parameters of their quorum responses depending on their private knowledge: informed ants evaluating a familiar new nest rely relatively more on social than private information when the certainty of their private information is low, and vice versa. This indicates that the ants follow a highly sophisticated ‘copy-when-uncertain’ social learning strategy similar to that observed in a few vertebrate species. Using simulations, we further show that this strategy improves colony performance during emigrations and confers well-informed individuals more weight in the decision process, thus representing a novel mechanism for the emergence of leadership in collective decision-making.
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35
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Leadership of old females in collective departures in wild bonobos (Pan paniscus) at Wamba. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2277-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
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36
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Scheiber IBR, Weiß BM, Kingma SA, Komdeur J. The importance of the altricial - precocial spectrum for social complexity in mammals and birds - a review. Front Zool 2017; 14:3. [PMID: 28115975 PMCID: PMC5242088 DOI: 10.1186/s12983-016-0185-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2016] [Accepted: 12/08/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Various types of long-term stable relationships that individuals uphold, including cooperation and competition between group members, define social complexity in vertebrates. Numerous life history, physiological and cognitive traits have been shown to affect, or to be affected by, such social relationships. As such, differences in developmental modes, i.e. the ‘altricial-precocial’ spectrum, may play an important role in understanding the interspecific variation in occurrence of social interactions, but to what extent this is the case is unclear because the role of the developmental mode has not been studied directly in across-species studies of sociality. In other words, although there are studies on the effects of developmental mode on brain size, on the effects of brain size on cognition, and on the effects of cognition on social complexity, there are no studies directly investigating the link between developmental mode and social complexity. This is surprising because developmental differences play a significant role in the evolution of, for example, brain size, which is in turn considered an essential building block with respect to social complexity. Here, we compiled an overview of studies on various aspects of the complexity of social systems in altricial and precocial mammals and birds. Although systematic studies are scarce and do not allow for a quantitative comparison, we show that several forms of social relationships and cognitive abilities occur in species along the entire developmental spectrum. Based on the existing evidence it seems that differences in developmental modes play a minor role in whether or not individuals or species are able to meet the cognitive capabilities and requirements for maintaining complex social relationships. Given the scarcity of comparative studies and potential subtle differences, however, we suggest that future studies should consider developmental differences to determine whether our finding is general or whether some of the vast variation in social complexity across species can be explained by developmental mode. This would allow a more detailed assessment of the relative importance of developmental mode in the evolution of vertebrate social systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabella B R Scheiber
- The University of Groningen, Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Brigitte M Weiß
- Behavioural Ecology Research Group, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Bioscience, Pharmacy and Psychology, Institute of Biology, Talstraße 33, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sjouke A Kingma
- The University of Groningen, Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jan Komdeur
- The University of Groningen, Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
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Abstract
When moving in groups, social animals tend to follow a leader which successfully attracted them. Many variables are known to affect an individual’s propensity to act as a leader. Depending on their nature, these variables underlie two theoretical paradigms (i) ‘leadership according to social indifference’, characterised by differences in personality or sociability, or (ii) ‘leadership according to need’, characterised by differences in energetic requirements or information content. Currently, it is not clear under which circumstances each of the two paradigms plays a larger role. Here, we tried to understand these paradigms by observing collective movements in female mallards. Each of these mallards previously learned individually to associate one of four locations in a maze with food rewards. We then formed groups of various compositions (group size range: 2–5 individuals) with respect to personality, sociability, energetic requirements, motivation and information content. We found that groups remained cohesive, and that certain individuals were consistent leaders within and between trials. The order of entering the maze was mainly determined by energetic requirements. However, soon after entering the maze, the progression order changed. Then, more socially indifferent individuals took the lead and this new order remained constant until all individuals reached the final location, which was usually the one the leader had learned. In addition, we investigated the role of naïve individuals in group decision-making. In our setup, adding naïve individuals broke the leadership consistency between trials and increased fission events. Overall, our results show that the onset of collective movements may be driven by different mechanisms compared to the movement progression itself.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christophe A.H. Bousquet
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR7178, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
| | - Noëlle Ahr
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR7178, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
| | - Cédric Sueur
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR7178, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
- Université libre de Bruxelles, Unit of Social Ecology, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Odile Petit
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR7178, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
- Université libre de Bruxelles, Unit of Social Ecology, Brussels, Belgium
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Hasson U, Frith CD. Mirroring and beyond: coupled dynamics as a generalized framework for modelling social interactions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:rstb.2015.0366. [PMID: 27069044 PMCID: PMC4843605 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 180] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
When people observe one another, behavioural alignment can be detected at many levels, from the physical to the mental. Likewise, when people process the same highly complex stimulus sequences, such as films and stories, alignment is detected in the elicited brain activity. In early sensory areas, shared neural patterns are coupled to the low-level properties of the stimulus (shape, motion, volume, etc.), while in high-order brain areas, shared neural patterns are coupled to high-levels aspects of the stimulus, such as meaning. Successful social interactions require such alignments (both behavioural and neural), as communication cannot occur without shared understanding. However, we need to go beyond simple, symmetric (mirror) alignment once we start interacting. Interactions are dynamic processes, which involve continuous mutual adaptation, development of complementary behaviour and division of labour such as leader-follower roles. Here, we argue that interacting individuals are dynamically coupled rather than simply aligned. This broader framework for understanding interactions can encompass both processes by which behaviour and brain activity mirror each other (neural alignment), and situations in which behaviour and brain activity in one participant are coupled (but not mirrored) to the dynamics in the other participant. To apply these more sophisticated accounts of social interactions to the study of the underlying neural processes we need to develop new experimental paradigms and novel methods of data analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uri Hasson
- Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, NJ 08544-1010, USA
| | - Chris D Frith
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, UK
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39
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The Influence of Social Parameters on the Homing Behavior of Pigeons. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0166572. [PMID: 27846262 PMCID: PMC5112789 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2016] [Accepted: 10/31/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Homing pigeons develop preferred routes when released alone several times from the same site, but they sometimes diverge from their preferred route when subsequently released with another pigeon. Additionally, group flights show a better homing performance than solo flights. But this knowledge is based on studies involving both sexes and lacks analyses of social parameters such as mating or breeding status, even though it is known that such parameters have an influence on behavior and on motivation for specific behavioral patterns. GPS trackers were used to track 24 homing pigeons (9 breeding pairs and 6 unmated females) as they performed a familiar 10km route in various pair and group combinations. Comparisons of efficiency indices (quotient between straight-line distance and pigeon’s track) reveal that unmated females show the best efficiency in single flights. Generally, group flights show the best efficiency followed by pair flights with a social partner of the opposite sex. Pair flights with the mated partner exhibit the poorest performance. Additionally, just before squabs hatching, females show a higher efficiency index when released at 8 am, compared to releases at 2 pm. Our results indicate that homing flight efficiency can provide insight into individual motivation and that social parameters have an influence on homing performance on a familiar route.
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Abstract
Moving animal groups display remarkable feats of coordination. This coordination is largely achieved when individuals adjust their movement in response to their neighbours' movements and positions. Recent advancements in automated tracking technologies, including computer vision and GPS, now allow researchers to gather large amounts of data on the movements and positions of individuals in groups. Furthermore, analytical techniques from fields such as statistical physics now allow us to identify the precise interaction rules used by animals on the move. These interaction rules differ not only between species, but also between individuals in the same group. These differences have wide-ranging implications, affecting how groups make collective decisions and driving the evolution of collective motion. Here, I describe how trajectory data can be used to infer how animals interact in moving groups. I give examples of the similarities and differences in the spatial and directional organisations of animal groups between species, and discuss the rules that animals use to achieve this organisation. I then explore how groups of the same species can exhibit different structures, and ask whether this results from individuals adapting their interaction rules. I then examine how the interaction rules between individuals in the same groups can also differ, and discuss how this can affect ecological and evolutionary processes. Finally, I suggest areas of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- J E Herbert-Read
- Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, S-75106 Uppsala, Sweden
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41
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Abstract
A new study has decoded which birds become leaders in homing pigeon flocks, finding an unexpected benefit of leadership: faster birds emerge as leaders, and these leaders learn more about their environment than their followers.
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42
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Taylor DEF, Cownden D, Webster MM. Sticklebacks show consistent prey share hierarchies within but not between patchy and sequential prey distributions. J Zool (1987) 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - D. Cownden
- School of Biology University of St Andrews St Andrews UK
| | - M. M. Webster
- School of Biology University of St Andrews St Andrews UK
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43
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Flack A, Biro D, Guilford T, Freeman R. Modelling group navigation: transitive social structures improve navigational performance. J R Soc Interface 2016; 12:20150213. [PMID: 26063820 PMCID: PMC4528586 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Collective navigation demands that group members reach consensus on which path to follow, a task that might become more challenging when the group's members have different social connections. Group decision-making mechanisms have been studied successfully in the past using individual-based modelling, although many of these studies have neglected the role of social connections between the group's interacting members. Nevertheless, empirical studies have demonstrated that individual recognition, previous shared experiences and inter-individual familiarity can influence the cohesion and the dynamics of the group as well as the relative spatial positions of specific individuals within it. Here, we use models of collective motion to study the impact of social relationships on group navigation by introducing social network structures into a model of collective motion. Our results show that groups consisting of equally informed individuals achieve the highest level of accuracy when they are hierarchically organized with the minimum number of preferred connections per individual. We also observe that the navigational accuracy of a group will depend strongly on detailed aspects of its social organization. More specifically, group navigation does not only depend on the underlying social relationships, but also on how much weight leading individuals put on following others. Also, we show that groups with certain social structures can compensate better for an increased level of navigational error. The results have broader implications for studies on collective navigation and motion because they show that only by considering a group's social system can we fully elucidate the dynamics and advantages of joint movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Flack
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tim Guilford
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Robin Freeman
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, UK
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44
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Santos CD, Przybyzin S, Wikelski M, Dechmann DKN. Collective Decision-Making in Homing Pigeons: Larger Flocks Take Longer to Decide but Do Not Make Better Decisions. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0147497. [PMID: 26863416 PMCID: PMC4749242 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2015] [Accepted: 01/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Social animals routinely are challenged to make consensus decisions about movement directions and routes. However, the underlying mechanisms facilitating such decision-making processes are still poorly known. A prominent question is how group members participate in group decisions. We addressed this question by examining how flocks of homing pigeons (Columba livia) decide their homing direction. We released newly formed flocks varying in size and determined the time taken to choose a homing direction (decision-making period) and the accuracy of that choice. We found that the decision-making period increases exponentially with flock size, which is consistent with a participatory decision-making process. We additionally found that there is no effect of flock size on the accuracy of the decisions made, which does not match with current theory for democratic choices of flight directions. Our combined results are better explained by a participatory choice of leaders that subsequently undertake the flock directional decisions. However, this decision-making model would only entirely fit with our results if leaders were chosen based on traits other than their navigational experience. Our study provides rare empirical evidence elucidating decision-making processes in freely moving groups of animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos D. Santos
- Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
- Departamento de Biologia, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Campus do Bacanga, São Luís, MA, Brazil
- * E-mail:
| | - Sebastian Przybyzin
- Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Martin Wikelski
- Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Dina K. N. Dechmann
- Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
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45
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Berdahl A, van Leeuwen A, Levin SA, Torney CJ. Collective behavior as a driver of critical transitions in migratory populations. MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2016; 4:18. [PMID: 27429757 PMCID: PMC4946155 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-016-0083-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2016] [Accepted: 05/19/2016] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Mass migrations are among the most striking examples of animal movement in the natural world. Such migrations are major drivers of ecosystem processes and strongly influence the survival and fecundity of individuals. For migratory animals, a formidable challenge is to find their way over long distances and through complex, dynamic environments. However, recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that by traveling in groups, individuals are able to overcome these challenges and increase their ability to navigate. Here we use models to explore the implications of collective navigation on migratory, and population, dynamics, for both breeding migrations (to-and-fro migrations between distinct, fixed, end-points) and feeding migrations (loop migrations that track favorable conditions). RESULTS We show that while collective navigation does improve a population's ability to migrate accurately, it can lead to Allee effects, causing the sudden collapse of populations if numbers fall below a critical threshold. In some scenarios, hysteresis prevents the migration from recovering even after the cause of the collapse has been removed. In collectively navigating populations that are locally adapted to specific breeding sites, a slight increase in mortality can cause a collapse of genetic population structure, rather than population size, making it more difficult to detect and prevent. CONCLUSIONS Despite the large interest in collective behavior and its ubiquity in many migratory species, there is a notable lack of studies considering the implications of social navigation on the ecological dynamics of migratory species. Here we highlight the potential for a previously overlooked Allee effect in socially migrating species that may be important for conservation and management of such species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Berdahl
- />Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Rd, Santa Fe, 87501 NM USA
- />Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544 NJ USA
| | - Anieke van Leeuwen
- />Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544 NJ USA
| | - Simon A. Levin
- />Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544 NJ USA
| | - Colin J. Torney
- />Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544 NJ USA
- />Centre for Mathematics and the Environment, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK
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Watts I, Pettit B, Nagy M, de Perera TB, Biro D. Lack of experience-based stratification in homing pigeon leadership hierarchies. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2016; 3:150518. [PMID: 26909176 PMCID: PMC4736931 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2015] [Accepted: 12/03/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
In societies that make collective decisions through leadership, a fundamental question concerns the individual attributes that allow certain group members to assume leadership roles over others. Homing pigeons form transitive leadership hierarchies during flock flights, where flock members are ranked according to the average time differences with which they lead or follow others' movement. Here, we test systematically whether leadership ranks in navigational hierarchies are correlated with prior experience of a homing task. We constructed experimental flocks of pigeons with mixed navigational experience: half of the birds within each flock had been familiarized with a specific release site through multiple previous releases, while the other half had never been released from the same site. We measured the birds' hierarchical leadership ranks, then switched the same birds' roles at a second site to test whether the relative hierarchical positions of the birds in the two subsets would reverse in response to the reversal in levels of experience. We found that while across all releases the top hierarchical positions were occupied by experienced birds significantly more often than by inexperienced ones, the remaining experienced birds were not consistently clustered in the top half-in other words, the network did not become stratified. We discuss our results in light of the adaptive value of structuring leadership hierarchies according to 'merit' (here, navigational experience).
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Affiliation(s)
- Isobel Watts
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Benjamin Pettit
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Máté Nagy
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
- MTA-ELTE Statistical and Biological Physics Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
- Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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47
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Pettit B, Ákos Z, Vicsek T, Biro D. Speed Determines Leadership and Leadership Determines Learning during Pigeon Flocking. Curr Biol 2015; 25:3132-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2015] [Revised: 10/18/2015] [Accepted: 10/19/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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48
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Kurvers RHJM, Wolf M, Naguib M, Krause J. Self-organized flexible leadership promotes collective intelligence in human groups. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2015; 2:150222. [PMID: 27019718 PMCID: PMC4807439 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2015] [Accepted: 11/26/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Collective intelligence refers to the ability of groups to outperform individual decision-makers. At present, relatively little is known about the mechanisms promoting collective intelligence in natural systems. We here test a novel mechanism generating collective intelligence: self-organization according to information quality. We tested this mechanism by performing simulated predator detection experiments using human groups. By continuously tracking the personal information of all members prior to collective decisions, we found that individuals adjusted their response time during collective decisions to the accuracy of their personal information. When individuals possessed accurate personal information, they decided quickly during collective decisions providing accurate information to the other group members. By contrast, when individuals had inaccurate personal information, they waited longer, allowing them to use social information before making a decision. Individuals deciding late during collective decisions had an increased probability of changing their decision leading to increased collective accuracy. Our results thus show that groups can self-organize according to the information accuracy of their members, thereby promoting collective intelligence. Interestingly, we find that individuals flexibly acted both as leader and as follower depending on the quality of their personal information at any particular point in time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, Berlin 14195, Germany
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin 12587, Germany
| | - Max Wolf
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin 12587, Germany
| | - Marc Naguib
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, De Elst 1, Wageningen 6708 WD, The Netherlands
| | - Jens Krause
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin 12587, Germany
- Department of Crop and Animal Sciences, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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49
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Informed horses are influential in group movements, but they may avoid leading. Anim Cogn 2015; 19:451-8. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-015-0945-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2015] [Revised: 11/09/2015] [Accepted: 11/19/2015] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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50
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Farine DR, Montiglio PO, Spiegel O. From Individuals to Groups and Back: The Evolutionary Implications of Group Phenotypic Composition. Trends Ecol Evol 2015; 30:609-621. [PMID: 26411618 PMCID: PMC4594155 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 147] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2015] [Revised: 07/10/2015] [Accepted: 07/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
There is increasing interest in understanding the processes that maintain phenotypic variation in groups, populations, or communities. Recent studies have investigated how the phenotypic composition of groups or aggregations (e.g., its average phenotype or phenotypic variance) affects ecological and social processes, and how multi-level selection can drive phenotypic covariance among interacting individuals. However, we argue that these questions are rarely studied together. We present a unified framework to address this gap, and discuss how group phenotypic composition (GPC) can impact on processes ranging from individual fitness to population demography. By emphasising the breadth of topics affected, we hope to motivate more integrated empirical studies of the ecological and evolutionary implications of GPC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damien R Farine
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá, República de Panamá; Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | | | - Orr Spiegel
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
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