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Author |
Rands, S.A.; Cowlishaw, G.; Pettifor, R.A.; Rowcliffe, J.M.; Johnstone, R.A. |
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Title |
The emergence of leaders and followers in foraging pairs when the qualities of individuals differ |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2008 |
Publication |
BMC Evolutionary Biology |
Abbreviated Journal |
BMC Evol Biol |
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Volume |
8 |
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Pages |
51 |
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Keywords |
Animals; *Feeding Behavior; *Food Chain; *Models, Biological; *Social Dominance |
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Abstract |
BACKGROUND: Foraging in groups offers animals a number of advantages, such as increasing their likelihood of finding food or detecting and avoiding predators. In order for a group to remain together, there has to be some degree of coordination of behaviour and movement between its members (which may in some cases be initiated by a decision-making leader, and in other cases may emerge as an underlying property of the group). For example, behavioural synchronisation is a phenomenon where animals within a group initiate and then continue to conduct identical behaviours, and has been characterised for a wide range of species. We examine how a pair of animals should behave using a state-dependent approach, and ask what conditions are likely to lead to behavioural synchronisation occurring, and whether one of the individuals is more likely to act as a leader. RESULTS: The model we describe considers how the energetic gain, metabolic requirements and predation risks faced by the individuals affect measures of their energetic state and behaviour (such as the degree of behavioural synchronisation seen within the pair, and the value to an individual of knowing the energetic state of its colleague). We explore how predictable changes in these measures are in response to changes in physiological requirements and predation risk. We also consider how these measures should change when the members of the pair are not identical in their metabolic requirements or their susceptibility to predation. We find that many of the changes seen in these measures are complex, especially when asymmetries exist between the members of the pair. CONCLUSION: Analyses are presented that demonstrate that, although these general patterns are robust, care needs to be taken when considering the effects of individual differences, as the relationship between individual differences and the resulting qualitative changes in behaviour may be complex. We discuss how these results are related to experimental observations, and how the model and its predictions could be extended. |
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Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. sean.rands@bristol.ac.uk |
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1471-2148 |
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PMID:18282297 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5126 |
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Author |
Jacobs, A.; Maumy, M.; Petit, O. |
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Title |
The influence of social organisation on leadership in brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus fulvus) in a controlled environment |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2008 |
Publication |
Behavioural Processes |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Process. |
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Volume |
79 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
111-113 |
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Keywords |
Animals; *Decision Making; Dominance-Subordination; *Exploratory Behavior; Female; Group Structure; *Leadership; Lemur/*psychology; Male; Sex Factors; *Social Environment |
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Abstract |
Studies on leadership during group movements in several lemur species showed that females were responsible for the travelling choices concerning time and direction. Interestingly, in these species females are dominant over males. We investigated the influence of social organisation upon leadership processes by studying a lemur species in which social organisation is characterized by the absence of female dominance: the brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus fulvus). The study was conducted on a semi-free ranging group of 11 individuals and the analysis performed on 69 group movements showed that all the individuals could initiate a group movement. In 34 cases, the whole group moved. There was no significant difference in the number of start attempts or in the number of group members involved from one initiator to another. Moreover, there was no effect of sex or age of the initiator on the number of individuals following it or on the speed of the joining process. Therefore, the leadership observed is widely distributed to all group members. These results support the hypothesis of an influence of social organisation upon the decision-making processes but still remain to be studied in a more relevant ecological context. |
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IPHC-DEPE, Equipe d'ethologie des primates, UMR 7178, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Universite Louis Pasteur and Centre de Primatologie, Strasbourg, France |
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English |
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0376-6357 |
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PMID:18586413 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5127 |
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