Search results for "social information"

Private information alone can trigger trapping of ant colonies in local feeding optima.

2015

Ant colonies are famous for using trail pheromones to make collective decisions. Trail pheromone systems are characterised by positive feedback, which results in rapid collective decision making. However, in an iconic experiment, ants were shown to become 'trapped' in exploiting a poor food source, if it was discovered earlier. This has conventionally been explained by the established pheromone trail becoming too strong for new trails to compete. However, many social insects have a well-developed memory, and private information often overrules conflicting social information. Thus, route memory could also explain this collective 'trapping' effect. Here, we disentangled the effects of social …

2019

Honeybees use the waggle dance to share information about food-site locations with nestmates. However, the importance of this behavior in colony foraging success remains unclear. We tested whether spatial dance information affects colony foraging success in a human-modified temperate environment by comparing colonies with oriented and disoriented dances. Notably, colonies with disoriented dances had greater foraging success. Over time, bees exposed to disoriented dances showed reduced interest in dancing nestmates. This may explain why disoriented colonies had a higher foraging rate than oriented colonies, as bees did not waste time waiting for information. This change in information-use st…

Quorum Sensing and Density-Dependent Dispersal in an Aquatic Model System

2012

International audience; Many organisms use cues to decide whether to disperse or not, especially those related to the composition of their environment. Dispersal hence sometimes depends on population density, which can be important for the dynamics and evolution of subdivided populations. But very little is known about the factors that organisms use to inform their dispersal decision. We investigated the cues underlying density-dependent dispersal in interconnected microcosms of the freshwater protozoan Paramecium caudatum. In two experiments, we manipulated (i) the number of cells per microcosm and (ii) the origin of their culture medium (supernatant from high-or low-density populations). …

The past and the present in decision-making: the use of conspecific and heterospecific cues in nest site selection

2014

International audience; Nest site selection significantly affects fitness, so adaptations for assessment of the qualities of available sites are expected. The assessment may be based on personal or social information, the latter referring to the observed location and performance of both conspecific and heterospecific individuals. Contrary to large-scale breeding habitat selection, small-scale nest site selection within habitat patches is insufficiently understood. We analyzed nest site selection in the migratory Collared Flycatcher Ficedula albicollis in relation to present and past cues provided by conspecifics and by resident tits within habitat patches by using long-term data. Collared F…

Predator encounters have spatially extensive impacts on parental behaviour in a breeding bird community.

2016

Predation risk has negative indirect effects on prey fitness, partly mediated through changes in behaviour. Evidence that individuals gather social information from other members of the population suggests that events in a community may impact the behaviour of distant individuals. However, spatially wide-ranging impacts on individual behaviour caused by a predator encounter elsewhere in a community have not been documented before. We investigated the effect of a predator encounter (hawk model presented at a focal nest) on the parental behaviour of pied flycatchers ( Ficedula hypoleuca ), both at the focal nest and at nearby nests different distances from the predator encounter. We show tha…

Avoiding perceived past resource use of potential competitors affects niche dynamics in a bird community

2014

Abstract. Background: Social information use is usually considered to lead to ecological convergence among involved con- or heterospecific individuals. However, recent results demonstrate that observers can also actively avoid behaving as those individuals being observed, leading to ecological divergence. This phenomenon has been little explored so far, yet it can have significant impact on resource use, realized niches and species co-existence. In particular, the time-scale and the ecological context over which such shifts can occur are unknown. We examined with a long-term (four years) field experiment whether experimentally manipulated, species-specific, nest-site feature preferences (sy…

Density, social information, and space use in the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara)

2007

6 pages; International audience; Socially acquired information is widespread in the animal kingdom. Many individuals make behavioral decisions based on such social information. In particular, individuals may decide to leave or select their habitat based on social information. Few studies have investigated the role of density-related information, a potential social cue about habitat quality in dispersal. Here, we tested for the possibility that the phenotype of intruder common lizards (Lacerta vivipara) may inadvertently carry information about their natal population density. We found that such information use is likely. The behavior of focal lizard was influenced by the natal population den…

Can video playback provide social information for foraging blue tits?

2017

Video playback is becoming a common method for manipulating social stimuli in experiments. Parid tits are one of the most commonly studied groups of wild birds. However, it is not yet clear if tits respond to video playback or how their behavioural responses should be measured. Behaviours may also differ depending on what they observe demonstrators encountering. Here we present blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) videos of demonstrators discovering palatable or aversive prey (injected with bittertasting Bitrex) from coloured feeding cups. First we quantify variation in demonstrators’ responses to the prey items: aversive prey provoked high rates of beak wiping and head shaking. We then show tha…

Mixed company : a framework for understanding the composition and organization of mixed‐species animal groups

2020

Mixed‐species animal groups (MSGs) are widely acknowledged to increase predator avoidance and foraging efficiency, among other benefits, and thereby increase participants' fitness. Diversity in MSG composition ranges from two to 70 species of very similar or completely different phenotypes. Yet consistency in organization is also observable in that one or a few species usually have disproportionate importance for MSG formation and/or maintenance. We propose a two‐dimensional framework for understanding this diversity and consistency, concentrating on the types of interactions possible between two individuals, usually of different species. One axis represents the similarity of benefit types …

Social information use about novel aposematic prey is not influenced by a predator’s previous experience with toxins

2019

Aposematism is an effective antipredator strategy. However, the initial evolution and maintenance of aposematism are paradoxical because conspicuous prey are vulnerable to attack by naive predators. Consequently, the evolution of aposematic signal mimicry is also difficult to explain. The cost of conspicuousness can be reduced if predators learn about novel aposematic prey by observing another predator's response to that same prey. On the other hand, observing positive foraging events might also inform predators about the presence of undefended mimics, accelerating predation on both mimics and their defended models. It is currently unknown, however, how personal and social information combi…