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Quorum Decision-Making in Foraging Fish Shoals

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posted on 2015-07-14, 11:58 authored by Ashley J. W. Ward, J. Krause, D. J. T. Sumpter
Quorum responses provide a means for group-living animals to integrate and filter disparate social information to produce accurate and coherent group decisions. A quorum response may be defined as a steep increase in the probability of group members performing a given behaviour once a threshold minimum number of their group mates already performing that behaviour is exceeded. In a previous study we reported the use of a quorum response in group decision-making of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) under a simulated predation threat. Here we examine the use of quorum responses by shoals of sticklebacks in first locating and then leaving a foraging patch. We show that a quorum rule explains movement decisions by threespine sticklebacks toward and then away from a food patch. Following both to and from a food patch occurred when a threshold number of initiators was exceeded, with the threshold being determined by the group size.

History

Citation

PLoS ONE, 2012, 7(3) : e32411

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

PLoS ONE

Publisher

Public Library of Science

issn

1932-6203

Acceptance date

2012-01-26

Copyright date

2012

Available date

2015-07-14

Publisher version

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0032411

Language

en

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