Consistent Individual Differences Drive Collective Behavior and Group Functioning of Schooling Fish.

ABSTRACT: The ubiquity of consistent inter-individual differences in behavior ("animal personalities") [1, 2] suggests that they might play a fundamental role in driving the movements and functioning of animal groups [3, 4], including their collective decision-making, foraging performance, and predator avoidance. Despite increasing evidence that highlights their importance [5-16], we still lack a unified mechanistic framework to explain and to predict how consistent inter-individual differences may drive collective behavior. Here we investigate how the structure, leadership, movement dynamics, and foraging performance of groups can emerge from inter-individual differences by high-resolution tracking of known behavioral types in free-swimming stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) shoals. We show that

SUBMITTER: Jolles JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5628957 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature