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Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour

Animal groups vary in their collective order (or state), forming disordered swarms to highly polarized groups. One explanation for this variation is that individuals face differential benefits or costs depending on the group’s order, but empirical evidence for this is lacking. Here we show that in t...

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Autores principales: MacGregor, Hannah E. A., Herbert-Read, James E., Ioannou, Christos C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32483141
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16578-x
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author MacGregor, Hannah E. A.
Herbert-Read, James E.
Ioannou, Christos C.
author_facet MacGregor, Hannah E. A.
Herbert-Read, James E.
Ioannou, Christos C.
author_sort MacGregor, Hannah E. A.
collection PubMed
description Animal groups vary in their collective order (or state), forming disordered swarms to highly polarized groups. One explanation for this variation is that individuals face differential benefits or costs depending on the group’s order, but empirical evidence for this is lacking. Here we show that in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), fish that are first to respond to an ephemeral food source do so faster when shoals are in a disordered, swarm-like state. This is because individuals’ visual fields collectively cover more of their environment, meaning private information is more readily available in disordered groups. Once social information becomes available, however, the arrival times of subsequent group members to the food are faster in more ordered, polarized groups. Our data further suggest that first responding individuals (those that benefit from group disorder) maintain larger differences in heading angle to their nearest neighbours when shoaling, thereby explaining how conflict over whether private or social information is favoured can drive dynamic changes in collective behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-72641422020-06-12 Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour MacGregor, Hannah E. A. Herbert-Read, James E. Ioannou, Christos C. Nat Commun Article Animal groups vary in their collective order (or state), forming disordered swarms to highly polarized groups. One explanation for this variation is that individuals face differential benefits or costs depending on the group’s order, but empirical evidence for this is lacking. Here we show that in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), fish that are first to respond to an ephemeral food source do so faster when shoals are in a disordered, swarm-like state. This is because individuals’ visual fields collectively cover more of their environment, meaning private information is more readily available in disordered groups. Once social information becomes available, however, the arrival times of subsequent group members to the food are faster in more ordered, polarized groups. Our data further suggest that first responding individuals (those that benefit from group disorder) maintain larger differences in heading angle to their nearest neighbours when shoaling, thereby explaining how conflict over whether private or social information is favoured can drive dynamic changes in collective behaviour. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7264142/ /pubmed/32483141 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16578-x Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
MacGregor, Hannah E. A.
Herbert-Read, James E.
Ioannou, Christos C.
Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title_full Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title_fullStr Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title_full_unstemmed Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title_short Information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
title_sort information can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32483141
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16578-x
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