Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours

Sean A Rands; Hayley Muir; Naomi L Terry

doi:10.7717/peerj.344

Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours

Sean A Rands, Hayley Muir, Naomi L Terry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Models of collective animal behaviour frequently make assumptions about
the effects of neighbours on the behaviour of focal individuals, but
these assumptions are rarely tested. One such set of assumptions is that
the switch between active and inactive behaviour seen in herding
animals is influenced by the activity of close neighbours, where
neighbouring animals show a higher degree of behavioural synchrony than
would be expected by chance. We tested this assumption by observing the
simultaneous behaviour of paired individuals within a herd of red deer Cervus elaphus. Focal individuals were more synchronised with their two closest
neighbours than with the third closest or randomly selected individuals
from the herd. Our results suggest that the behaviour of individual deer
is influenced by immediate neighbours. Even if we assume that there are
no social relationships between individuals, this suggests that the
assumptions made in models about the influence of neighbours may be
appropriate.

Original language	English
Article number	e344
Number of pages	9
Journal	PeerJ
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.344
Publication status	Published - 10 Apr 2014

Keywords

Synchrony
Neighbours
Collective behaviour
Modelling
Social networks

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title = "Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours",

abstract = "Models of collective animal behaviour frequently make assumptions about the effects of neighbours on the behaviour of focal individuals, but these assumptions are rarely tested. One such set of assumptions is that the switch between active and inactive behaviour seen in herding animals is influenced by the activity of close neighbours, where neighbouring animals show a higher degree of behavioural synchrony than would be expected by chance. We tested this assumption by observing the simultaneous behaviour of paired individuals within a herd of red deer Cervus elaphus. Focal individuals were more synchronised with their two closest neighbours than with the third closest or randomly selected individuals from the herd. Our results suggest that the behaviour of individual deer is influenced by immediate neighbours. Even if we assume that there are no social relationships between individuals, this suggests that the assumptions made in models about the influence of neighbours may be appropriate.",

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T1 - Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours

AU - Rands, Sean A

AU - Muir, Hayley

AU - Terry, Naomi L

PY - 2014/4/10

Y1 - 2014/4/10

N2 - Models of collective animal behaviour frequently make assumptions about the effects of neighbours on the behaviour of focal individuals, but these assumptions are rarely tested. One such set of assumptions is that the switch between active and inactive behaviour seen in herding animals is influenced by the activity of close neighbours, where neighbouring animals show a higher degree of behavioural synchrony than would be expected by chance. We tested this assumption by observing the simultaneous behaviour of paired individuals within a herd of red deer Cervus elaphus. Focal individuals were more synchronised with their two closest neighbours than with the third closest or randomly selected individuals from the herd. Our results suggest that the behaviour of individual deer is influenced by immediate neighbours. Even if we assume that there are no social relationships between individuals, this suggests that the assumptions made in models about the influence of neighbours may be appropriate.

AB - Models of collective animal behaviour frequently make assumptions about the effects of neighbours on the behaviour of focal individuals, but these assumptions are rarely tested. One such set of assumptions is that the switch between active and inactive behaviour seen in herding animals is influenced by the activity of close neighbours, where neighbouring animals show a higher degree of behavioural synchrony than would be expected by chance. We tested this assumption by observing the simultaneous behaviour of paired individuals within a herd of red deer Cervus elaphus. Focal individuals were more synchronised with their two closest neighbours than with the third closest or randomly selected individuals from the herd. Our results suggest that the behaviour of individual deer is influenced by immediate neighbours. Even if we assume that there are no social relationships between individuals, this suggests that the assumptions made in models about the influence of neighbours may be appropriate.

KW - Synchrony

KW - Neighbours

KW - Collective behaviour

KW - Modelling

KW - Social networks

U2 - 10.7717/peerj.344

DO - 10.7717/peerj.344

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 24765578

VL - 2

JO - PeerJ

JF - PeerJ

SN - 2167-8359

M1 - e344

ER -

Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours

Abstract

Keywords

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