Collective Computation in Animal Fission-Fusion Dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Recent work suggests that collective computation of social structure can minimize uncertainty about the social and physical environment, facilitating adaptation. We explore these ideas by studying how fission-fusion social structure arises in spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) groups, exploring whether monkeys use social knowledge to collectively compute subgroup size distributions adaptive for foraging in variable environments. We assess whether individual decisions to stay in or leave subgroups are conditioned on strategies based on the presence or absence of others. We search for this evidence in a time series of subgroup membership. We find that individuals have multiple strategies, suggesting that the social knowledge of different individuals is important. These stay-leave strate

SUBMITTER: Ramos-Fernandez G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7805913 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature