Consensus decision making in animals

Conradt, Larissa; Roper, T. J.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.05.008

Cited by 772 publications

(738 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…These behaviours are therefore reminiscent of other signals used by a variety of species to synchronise activities (18,19). While these signals are often used as a voting system in other species (17), it appears that SF and ULT are always performed by only one member of the school (28,30). These events offer signals that can be emitted to all individuals within the school but which are not heard by non-school members because the sound produced by these percussive behaviours does not travel as far as vocalisations do (31).These two nonvocal behavioural signals could be advantageous to minimise the cost of intraspecific competition from direct competition for food between the different communities present in the population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In gregarious species these decisions are compounded by the need to interact with conspecifics in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic influences such as prey availability (3)(4)(5)(6) or intra-specific competition (7,8). These influences often result in the emergence of complex social behaviour (9)(10)(11) and social structure (12)(13)(14)(15) which facilitate the decision-making process and often the need to reach consensus between individuals within a group (16,17). Many social species have developed signals that help members of groups or aggregations to coordinate their activities (18)(19)(20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many social species have developed signals that help members of groups or aggregations to coordinate their activities (18)(19)(20). This decision process can results in conflicts (2,21) and no consensus has been reached on which mechanisms are driving this process (2,17,22,23). Conradt and collaborators discriminate between democratic and despotic decision-making processes and argue that democratic processes are widespread because they lower the consensus cost by producing less extreme decisions (2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for social role in a dolphin social network

2006

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Social animals have to take into consideration the behaviour of conspecifics when making decisions to go by their daily lives. These decisions affect their fitness and there is therefore an evolutionary pressure to try making the right choices. In many instances individuals will make their own choices and the behaviour of the group will be a democratic integration of everyone's decision. However, in some instances it can be advantageous to follow the choice of a few individuals in the group if they have more information regarding the situation that has arisen. Here I provide early evidence that decisions about shifts in activity states in a population of bottlenose dolphin follow such a decision making process. This unshared consensus is mediated by a non-vocal signal which can be communicated globally within the dolphin school. These signals are emitted by individuals that tend to have more information about the behaviour of potential competitors because of their position in the social network. I hypothesise that this decision making process emerged from the social structure of the population and the need to maintain mixed-sex schools.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for social role in a dolphin social network

2006

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“…Aggregation is commonly recognised to provide benefits for group members, for instance through predation avoidance or improved foraging efficiency (Krause & Ruxton 2002). Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the potential navigational advantages for animals moving in groups (Simons 2004;Conradt & Roper 2005;Couzin et al 2005;Hancock et al 2006, Codling et al 2007). …”

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confidence: 99%

Flock flying improves pigeons' homing: GPS track analysis of individual flyers versus small groups

et al. 2008

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The effects of aggregation in navigating animals have generated growing interest in field and theoretical studies. The few studies on the effects of group flying on the performance of homing pigeons (Columba livia) have led to controversial conclusions, chiefly because of the lack of appropriate technology to follow pigeons during their entire homeward flight. Therefore, we used GPS data-loggers in six highly pre-trained pigeons from a familiar release site first by releasing them six times individually, then six times as a group from the same site, and finally, again six times individually. Flight data showed that the homing performance of the birds flying as a flock was significantly better than that of the birds released individually. When flying in a flock, pigeons showed no resting episodes, shorter homing times, higher speed, and almost no circling around the start zone in comparison to individual flights. Moreover, flock-flying pigeons took a nearly direct, "beeline" route to the loft, whereas individually flying birds preferred to follow roads and other longitudinal landmarks leading towards the loft, even when it caused a detour. Our results show that group cohesion facilitates a shift towards more efficient homing strategies: individuals prefer navigating by familiar landmarks, while flocks show a compass orientation.

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“…Honey has been of culinary importance for millennia, and is still a key ingredient, e.g., for traditional patisseries (Ellis 2014). Bees are also strong cultural indicators, inspiring poetry and metaphors (e.g., Rogers and Sleigh 2012), aesthetic expressions (springs filled with buzzing bumblebees), and cultural and even political values (Southwood and Richard 1977); bee colonies form a super organism, and emergent joint decision making in bee colonies inspires democratic thought on consensus decision making (see Conradt and Roper 2005). Domestic bees as such have many important properties in addition to their role as pollinators.…”

Section: Box 1: Crops That Depend On Insect Pollinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinators and Global Food Security: the Need for Holistic Global Stewardship

2016

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Over the past decades, both wild and domesticated insect pollinators are in dramatic decline, which puts at stake the existence of species, ecosystem resilience and global food security. Globally, 87 of major food crops depend on animal pollination. Together these account for 35 % of the world food production volume. Pollinator mediated crops are indispensable for essential micronutrients in the human diet. Many ornamental plants as well as crops for fibre, fodder, biofuels, timber and phytopharmaceuticals also depend on insect pollinators. This article aims to map the current situation of pollinators worldwide, with a focus on the critical role of pollinators in the human food chain and ecosystem sustainability, their intrinsic and extrinsic value, as well as the causes of their declines and the interventions needed to conserve them, in order to develop an argument for the importance of conserving and restoring pollinator populations and diversity. The present pollinator crisis threatens global and local food security, can worsen the problems of hidden hunger, erodes ecosystem resilience, and can destabilise ecosystems that form our life support system. An integrated approach that simultaneously addresses the key drivers is needed. This includes creation and restoration of floral and nesting resources, a global phase out of prophylactic use of neonicotinoids and fipronil, improvement of test protocols in authorisation of agrochemicals, and restoration and maintenance of independence in regulatory science. The authors argue that an international treaty for global pollinator stewardship and pollinator ecosystem restoration should be initiated in order to systemically counteract the current crisis. Food ethics (2016) 1:75-91

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Consensus decision making in animals

Cited by 772 publications

References 56 publications

Evidence for social role in a dolphin social network

Evidence for social role in a dolphin social network

Flock flying improves pigeons' homing: GPS track analysis of individual flyers versus small groups

Pollinators and Global Food Security: the Need for Holistic Global Stewardship

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