INFORMATION-INDUCED NETWORK DYNAMICS IN ANIMAL SOCIETIES
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Abstract
Animal societies, including those of humans, are inherently dynamic, with individuals continually forming new relationships as old ones fade. However, how and why individuals update their social interactions remains poorly understood. Avoiding disease and gaining access to information have been suggested as key factors driving social dynamics. Work to date has focused almost exclusively on disease, finding that individuals modify their social interactions to reduce their risk of infection. Currently however, we lack a basic understanding of how and why individuals adjust their social relationships for information access.
This research project will address this knowledge gap by using half a century of social and ecological data on the Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs). The SRKWs are one of the best study systems available to determine how information access drives social dynamics – they have no natural predators, and one key ecological factor determines their survival and reproduction - the abundance of their primary prey, Chinook salmon. Salmon abundance is highly variable within and between years and we have shown that old individuals act as repositories for ecological knowledge of where and when to find salmon. During the summer, SRKWs are “resident” in a small inland/marginal sea off the Northwest Pacific Coast of North America, where they feed on migrating salmon. The tractability of this study system has provided one of the most complete and detailed datasets on a marine mammal anywhere in the world.
Using 50 years of data on SRKW behaviour and salmon abundance, we will determine how accurately SRKWs time their arrival in the coastal waters with annual peaks in salmon abundance and how this depends on their own experience/knowledge and the experience/knowledge of others in their social group. We will quantify how individuals rewire their social interactions when salmon abundance changes, predicting that younger individuals will actively prefer to associate with old/experienced individuals in years of low salmon. Moreover, we will examine how the death of a knowledgeable social partner drives information-induced social dynamics, predicting that individuals who lose a knowledgeable partner will actively form new (or strengthen existing) associations with knowledgeable individuals. Finally, we will examine how information-induced social rewiring scales up to influence the population's social structure. For example, we predict that a decline in the proportion of old knowledgeable individuals in the population will be associated with the social collapse of the population, as individuals link to the few remaining knowledgeable individuals.
Our understanding of mammalian social systems is heavily skewed towards terrestrial mammals. The maturation of long-term individual-based studies in the marine environment, such as the SRKW database, which spans half a century, opens a new frontier for research on animal societies. Our research will provide a new fundamental understanding of information-driven social dynamics, which has the potential to help explain widespread social dynamics seen across species, and as such, our research findings will be of broad interdisciplinary interest. Our research findings will guide the future conservation and management of the critically endangered SRKW population by providing new insight into the consequences of social behaviour for survival and reproductive success. Globally, animal populations are living under increasing anthropogenic pressures and our work will shine new light on the consequences of these effects for social dynamics, survival and reproduction, which has the potential to inform conservation strategies across a wide range of species.
This research project will address this knowledge gap by using half a century of social and ecological data on the Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs). The SRKWs are one of the best study systems available to determine how information access drives social dynamics – they have no natural predators, and one key ecological factor determines their survival and reproduction - the abundance of their primary prey, Chinook salmon. Salmon abundance is highly variable within and between years and we have shown that old individuals act as repositories for ecological knowledge of where and when to find salmon. During the summer, SRKWs are “resident” in a small inland/marginal sea off the Northwest Pacific Coast of North America, where they feed on migrating salmon. The tractability of this study system has provided one of the most complete and detailed datasets on a marine mammal anywhere in the world.
Using 50 years of data on SRKW behaviour and salmon abundance, we will determine how accurately SRKWs time their arrival in the coastal waters with annual peaks in salmon abundance and how this depends on their own experience/knowledge and the experience/knowledge of others in their social group. We will quantify how individuals rewire their social interactions when salmon abundance changes, predicting that younger individuals will actively prefer to associate with old/experienced individuals in years of low salmon. Moreover, we will examine how the death of a knowledgeable social partner drives information-induced social dynamics, predicting that individuals who lose a knowledgeable partner will actively form new (or strengthen existing) associations with knowledgeable individuals. Finally, we will examine how information-induced social rewiring scales up to influence the population's social structure. For example, we predict that a decline in the proportion of old knowledgeable individuals in the population will be associated with the social collapse of the population, as individuals link to the few remaining knowledgeable individuals.
Our understanding of mammalian social systems is heavily skewed towards terrestrial mammals. The maturation of long-term individual-based studies in the marine environment, such as the SRKW database, which spans half a century, opens a new frontier for research on animal societies. Our research will provide a new fundamental understanding of information-driven social dynamics, which has the potential to help explain widespread social dynamics seen across species, and as such, our research findings will be of broad interdisciplinary interest. Our research findings will guide the future conservation and management of the critically endangered SRKW population by providing new insight into the consequences of social behaviour for survival and reproductive success. Globally, animal populations are living under increasing anthropogenic pressures and our work will shine new light on the consequences of these effects for social dynamics, survival and reproduction, which has the potential to inform conservation strategies across a wide range of species.