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Lukas J, Krause J, Träger AS, Piotrowski JM, Romanczuk P, Sprekeler H, Arias-Rodriguez L, Krause S, Schutz C, Bierbach D. Multispecies collective waving behaviour in fish. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220069. [PMID: 36802783 PMCID: PMC9939262 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 02/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Collective behaviour is widely accepted to provide a variety of antipredator benefits. Acting collectively requires not only strong coordination among group members, but also the integration of among-individual phenotypic variation. Therefore, groups composed of more than one species offer a unique opportunity to look into the evolution of both mechanistic and functional aspects of collective behaviour. Here, we present data on mixed-species fish shoals that perform collective dives. These repeated dives produce water waves capable of delaying and/or reducing the success of piscivorous bird attacks. The large majority of the fish in these shoals consist of the sulphur molly, Poecilia sulphuraria, but we regularly also found a second species, the widemouth gambusia, Gambusia eurystoma, making these shoals mixed-species aggregations. In a set of laboratory experiments, we found that gambusia were much less inclined to dive after an attack as compared with mollies, which almost always dive, though mollies dived less deep when paired with gambusia that did not dive. By contrast, the behaviour of gambusia was not influenced by the presence of diving mollies. The dampening effect of less responsive gambusia on molly diving behaviour can have strong evolutionary consequences on the overall collective waving behaviour as we expect shoals with a high proportion of unresponsive gambusia to be less effective at producing repeated waves. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliane Lukas
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany
| | - Jens Krause
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
| | - Arabella Sophie Träger
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Jonas Marc Piotrowski
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
| | - Pawel Romanczuk
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Biology, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Henning Sprekeler
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
- Institute of Software Engineering and Theoretical Computer Science, Berlin Institute of Technology, 10587 Berlin, Germany
| | - Lenin Arias-Rodriguez
- División Académica de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Juárez Autónoma Tabasco, 86150 Villahermosa, Mexico
| | - Stefan Krause
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Christopher Schutz
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
| | - David Bierbach
- Faculty of Life Sciences, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence’, Technical University of Berlin, Marchstrasse 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany
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Hughes AE, Griffiths D, Troscianko J, Kelley LA. The evolution of patterning during movement in a large-scale citizen science game. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202823. [PMID: 33434457 PMCID: PMC7892415 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The motion dazzle hypothesis posits that high contrast geometric patterns can cause difficulties in tracking a moving target and has been argued to explain the patterning of animals such as zebras. Research to date has only tested a small number of patterns, offering equivocal support for the hypothesis. Here, we take a genetic programming approach to allow patterns to evolve based on their fitness (time taken to capture) and thus find the optimal strategy for providing protection when moving. Our ‘Dazzle Bug’ citizen science game tested over 1.5 million targets in a touch screen game at a popular visitor attraction. Surprisingly, we found that targets lost pattern elements during evolution and became closely background matching. Modelling results suggested that targets with lower motion energy were harder to catch. Our results indicate that low contrast, featureless targets offer the greatest protection against capture when in motion, challenging the motion dazzle hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna E Hughes
- Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe House, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK
| | | | - Jolyon Troscianko
- Centre for Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Laura A Kelley
- Centre for Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
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Stears K, Schmitt MH, Wilmers CC, Shrader AM. Mixed-species herding levels the landscape of fear. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20192555. [PMID: 32126952 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Prey anti-predator behaviours are influenced by perceived predation risk in a landscape and social information gleaned from herd mates regarding predation risk. It is well documented that high-quality social information about risk can come from heterospecific herd mates. Here, we integrate social information with the landscape of fear to quantify how these landscapes are modified by mixed-species herding. To do this, we investigated zebra vigilance in single- and mixed-species herds across different levels of predation risk (lion versus no lion), and assessed how they manage herd size and the competition-information trade-off associated with grouping behaviour. Overall, zebra performed higher vigilance in high-risk areas. However, mixed-species herding reduced vigilance levels. We estimate that zebra in single-species herds would have to feed for approximately 35 min more per day in low-risk areas and approximately 51 min more in high-risk areas to compensate for the cost of higher vigilance. Furthermore, zebra benefitted from the competition-information trade-off by increasing the number of heterospecifics while keeping the number of zebra in a herd constant. Ultimately, we show that mixed-species herding reduces the effects of predation risk, whereby zebra in mixed-species herds, under high predation risk, perform similar levels of vigilance compared with zebra in low-risk scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keenan Stears
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.,School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville 3209, South Africa.,South African Environmental Observation Network, Ndlovu Node, Phalaborwa 1390, South Africa
| | - Melissa H Schmitt
- School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville 3209, South Africa.,South African Environmental Observation Network, Ndlovu Node, Phalaborwa 1390, South Africa.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Christopher C Wilmers
- Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Adrian M Shrader
- School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville 3209, South Africa.,Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028, South Africa
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Goodale E, Sridhar H, Sieving KE, Bangal P, Colorado Z GJ, Farine DR, Heymann EW, Jones HH, Krams I, Martínez AE, Montaño-Centellas F, Muñoz J, Srinivasan U, Theo A, Shanker K. Mixed company: a framework for understanding the composition and organization of mixed-species animal groups. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2020; 95:889-910. [PMID: 32097520 PMCID: PMC7383667 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2019] [Revised: 02/02/2020] [Accepted: 02/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Mixed-species animal groups (MSGs) are widely acknowledged to increase predator avoidance and foraging efficiency, among other benefits, and thereby increase participants' fitness. Diversity in MSG composition ranges from two to 70 species of very similar or completely different phenotypes. Yet consistency in organization is also observable in that one or a few species usually have disproportionate importance for MSG formation and/or maintenance. We propose a two-dimensional framework for understanding this diversity and consistency, concentrating on the types of interactions possible between two individuals, usually of different species. One axis represents the similarity of benefit types traded between the individuals, while the second axis expresses asymmetry in the relative amount of benefits/costs accrued. Considering benefit types, one extreme represents the case of single-species groups wherein all individuals obtain the same supplementary, group-size-related benefits, and the other extreme comprises associations of very different, but complementary species (e.g. one partner creates access to food while the other provides vigilance). The relevance of social information and the matching of activities (e.g. speed of movement) are highest for relationships on the supplementary side of this axis, but so is competition; relationships between species will occur at points along this gradient where the benefits outweigh the costs. Considering benefit amounts given or received, extreme asymmetry occurs when one species is exclusively a benefit provider and the other a benefit user. Within this parameter space, some MSG systems are constrained to one kind of interaction, such as shoals of fish of similar species or leader-follower interactions in fish and other taxa. Other MSGs, such as terrestrial bird flocks, can simultaneously include a variety of supplementary and complementary interactions. We review the benefits that species obtain across the diversity of MSG types, and argue that the degree and nature of asymmetry between benefit providers and users should be measured and not just assumed. We then discuss evolutionary shifts in MSG types, focusing on drivers towards similarity in group composition, and selection on benefit providers to enhance the benefits they can receive from other species. Finally, we conclude by considering how individual and collective behaviour in MSGs may influence both the structure and processes of communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eben Goodale
- Guangxi Key Laboratory for Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530004, China
| | - Hari Sridhar
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560012, India.,National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560012, India
| | - Kathryn E Sieving
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, U.S.A
| | - Priti Bangal
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560012, India
| | - Gabriel J Colorado Z
- Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, 050034, Colombia
| | - Damien R Farine
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78464, Konstanz, Germany.,Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, D-78464, Konstanz, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, D-78464, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Eckhard W Heymann
- Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Leibniz-Institut für Primatenforschung, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Harrison H Jones
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, U.S.A.,Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, 32611, U.S.A
| | - Indrikis Krams
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, 51410, Estonia.,Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Rīga, 1004, Latvia
| | - Ari E Martínez
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, CA, 90840, U.S.A
| | - Flavia Montaño-Centellas
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, U.S.A.,Instituto de Ecologia, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, La Paz, 10077, Bolivia
| | - Jenny Muñoz
- Zoology Department and Biodiversity Research Center, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1ZA, Canada
| | - Umesh Srinivasan
- Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, U.S.A
| | - Anne Theo
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560012, India
| | - Kartik Shanker
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560012, India.,Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru, 560092, India
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