Information Theory Opens New Dimensions in Experimental Studies of Animal Behaviour and Communication

SIMPLE SUMMARY: An information theory approach provides new methods for experimental studying and analysis of animals’ communication and behavioural sequences. One of the main problems in studying animal behaviour at different levels of the organisation, from individual to collective behaviour, is searching for a reliable criterion for evaluating the variability and complexity of patterns. The data-compression method based on ideas of Kolmogorov complexity allows us to spot regularities that are difficult to detect otherwise, and that can influence the complexity of behavioural sequences. The information-theory approach allows for a comparative analysis of ethograms and provides a quantitative way to distinguish between innate and experienced behaviour. This approach is focused on studying natural communications by measuring information transmission rates without attempting to decode signals. It has made it possible, in particular, to discover the existence of a developed symbolic “language” in leader-scouting ant species, based on the ability of these ants to transfer abstract information about remote events. ABSTRACT: Over the last 40–50 years, ethology has become increasingly quantitative and computational. However, when analysing animal behavioural sequences, researchers often need help finding an adequate model to assess certain characteristics of these sequences while using a relatively small number of parameters. In this review, I demonstrate that the information theory approaches based on Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity can furnish effective tools to analyse and compare animal natural behaviours. In addition to a comparative analysis of stereotypic behavioural sequences, information theory can provide ideas for particular experiments on sophisticated animal communications. In particular, it has made it possible to discover the existence of a developed symbolic “language” in leader-scouting ant species based on the ability of these ants to transfer abstract information about remote events.