TY - JOUR
A1 - Schneeberger, Karin
A1 - Taborsky, Michael
T1 - The role of sensory ecology and cognition in social decisions
BT - costs of acquiring information matter
JF - Functional ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society
N2 - 1. We generally assume that animals should maximize information acquisition about their environment to make prudent decisions. But this is a naive assumption, as gaining information typically involves costs.
2. This is especially so in the social context, where interests between interacting partners usually diverge. The arms race involved in mutual assessment is characterized by the attempt to obtain revealing information from a partner while providing only as much information by oneself as is conducive to one's own intentions.
3. If obtaining information occasions costs in terms of time, energy and risk, animals should be selected to base their decisions on a cost-benefit ratio that takes account of the trade-off between the risk of making wrong choices and the costs involved in information acquisition, processing and use.
4. In addition, there may be physiological and/or environmental constraints limiting the ability to obtaining, processing and utilizing reliable information.
5. Here, we discuss recent empirical evidence for the proposition that social decisions are to an important extent based on the costs that result from acquiring, processing, evaluating and storing information. Using examples from different taxa and ecological contexts, we aim at drawing attention to the often neglected costs of information recipience, with emphasis on the potential role of sensory ecology and cognition in social decisions.
KW - behaviour
KW - constrains
KW - costs
KW - decisions
KW - signals
KW - sociality
KW - trade-offs
Y1 - 2020
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13488
SN - 0269-8463
SN - 1365-2435
VL - 34
IS - 2
SP - 302
EP - 309
PB - Wiley
CY - Hoboken
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - González-Fortes, Gloria M.
A1 - Kolbe, Ben
A1 - Fernandes, Daniel
A1 - Meleg, Ioana N.
A1 - Garcia-Vazquez, Ana
A1 - Pinto-Llona, Ana C.
A1 - Constantin, Silviu
A1 - de Torres, Trino J.
A1 - Ortiz, Jose E.
A1 - Frischauf, Christine
A1 - Rabeder, Gernot
A1 - Hofreiter, Michael
A1 - Barlow, Axel
T1 - Ancient DNA reveals differences in behaviour and sociality between brown bears and extinct cave bears
JF - Molecular ecology
N2 - Ancient DNA studies have revolutionized the study of extinct species and populations, providing insights on phylogeny, phylogeography, admixture and demographic history. However, inferences on behaviour and sociality have been far less frequent. Here, we investigate the complete mitochondrial genomes of extinct Late Pleistocene cave bears and middle Holocene brown bears that each inhabited multiple geographically proximate caves in northern Spain. In cave bears, we find that, although most caves were occupied simultaneously, each cave almost exclusively contains a unique lineage of closely related haplotypes. This remarkable pattern suggests extreme fidelity to their birth site in cave bears, best described as homing behaviour, and that cave bears formed stable maternal social groups at least for hibernation. In contrast, brown bears do not show any strong association of mitochondrial lineage and cave, suggesting that these two closely related species differed in aspects of their behaviour and sociality. This difference is likely to have contributed to cave bear extinction, which occurred at a time in which competition for caves between bears and humans was likely intense and the ability to rapidly colonize new hibernation sites would have been crucial for the survival of a species so dependent on caves for hibernation as cave bears. Our study demonstrates the potential of ancient DNA to uncover patterns of behaviour and sociality in ancient species and populations, even those that went extinct many tens of thousands of years ago.
KW - ancient DNA
KW - extinction
KW - homing
KW - sociality
KW - Ursus arctos
KW - Ursus spelaeus
Y1 - 2016
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13800
SN - 0962-1083
SN - 1365-294X
VL - 25
SP - 4907
EP - 4918
PB - Wiley-Blackwell
CY - Hoboken
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Cortes-Avizanda, Ainara
A1 - Jovani, Roger
A1 - Antonio Donazar, Jose
A1 - Grimm, Volker
T1 - Bird sky networks: How do avian scavengers use social information to find carrion?
JF - Ecology : a publication of the Ecological Society of America
N2 - The relative contribution of personal and social information to explain individual and collective behavior in different species and contexts is an open question in animal ecology. In particular, there is a major lack of studies combining theoretical and empirical approaches to test the relative relevance of different hypothesized individual behaviors to predict empirical collective patterns. We used an individual-based model to confront three hypotheses about the information transfer between social scavengers (Griffon Vultures, Gyps fulvus) when searching for carrion: (1) Vultures only use personal information during foraging ("nonsocial" hypothesis); (2) they create long chains of vultures by following both other vultures that are flying towards carcasses and vultures that are following other vultures that are flying towards carcasses ("chains of vultures" hypothesis); and (3) vultures are only attracted by other vultures that are sinking vertically to a carcass ("local enhancement" hypothesis). The chains of vultures hypothesis has been used in existing models, but never been confronted with field data. Testing is important, though, because these hypotheses could have different management implications. The model was parameterized to mimic the behavior and the densities of both Griffon Vultures and carcasses in a 10 000-km(2) study area in northeastern Spain. We compared the number of vultures attending simulated carcasses with those attending 25 continuously monitored experimental carcasses in the field. Social hypotheses outperformed the nonsocial hypothesis. The chains of vultures hypothesis overestimated the number of vultures feeding on carcasses; the local enhancement hypothesis fitted closely to the empirical data. Supported by our results, we discuss mechanistic and adaptive considerations that reveal that local enhancement may be the key social mechanism behind collective foraging in this and likely other avian scavengers and/or social birds. It also highlights the current need for more studies confronting alternative models of key behaviors with empirical patterns in order to understand how collective behavior emerges in animal societies.
KW - carrion resources
KW - foraging
KW - group-living
KW - pulsed resources
KW - sociality
KW - Spain
KW - vultures
Y1 - 2014
SN - 0012-9658
SN - 1939-9170
VL - 95
IS - 7
SP - 1799
EP - 1808
PB - Wiley
CY - Washington
ER -