The importance of individual variation in the dynamics of animal collective movements
Authored by Morales Juan Manuel, Eliezer Gurarie, William F Fagan, Vincenzo Penteriani, Mar Delgado Maria del, Maria Miranda, Silvia J Alvarez, Virgilio Agustina di
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0008
Sponsors:
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Animal collective movements are a key example of a system that links two
clearly defined levels of organization: the individual and the group.
Most models investigating collective movements have generated coherent
collective behaviours without the inclusion of individual variability.
However, new individual-based models, together with emerging empirical
information, emphasize that within-group heterogeneity may strongly
influence collective movement behaviour. Here we (i) review the
empirical evidence for individual variation in animal collective
movements, (ii) explore how theoretical investigations have represented
individual heterogeneity when modelling collective movements and (iii)
present a model to show how within-group heterogeneity influences the
collective properties of a group. Our review underscores the need to
consider variability at the level of the individual to improve our
understanding of how individual decision rules lead to emergent movement
patterns, and also to yield better quantitative predictions of
collective behaviour.
This article is part of the theme issue `Collective movement ecology'.
Tags
Social networks
Evolution
behavior
models
Leadership
collective motion
Decision-Making
selfish herd
Aggregation
Fish schools
Behavioural rules
Context-dependent
factors
Lagrangian models
Migratory populations
Nutritional state