Group decision making in fission-fusion societies: evidence from two-field experiments in Bechstein's bats
Group decision making in fission-fusion societies: evidence from two-field experiments in Bechstein's bats
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2006.3647
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发表时间：
2006-11-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Schmidtke, Christine
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kerth, Gerald;Ebert, Cornelia;Schmidtke, Christine
当群体协调有益时需要群体决策，但个人可以在替代方案之间进行选择。尽管人们对动物群体决策的兴趣日益浓厚，但仍缺乏实验现场研究来调查具有冲突信息的动物如何做出群体决策。特别是，没有实地研究考虑裂变融合行为（暂时分裂为亚组）对群体决策的影响。我们研究了两个野生贝希斯坦蝙蝠群体的群体决策，这些群体是具有稳定个体组成的裂变融合社会。由于它们经常更换公共栖息地，因此群体成员必须定期就栖息地做出集体决定。在两个场地的实验中，我们为标记的个体提供了有关潜在栖息地的适宜性的相互矛盾的信息。我们调查了相互冲突的信息是否会导致遵循“一致”或“多数”规则的群体决策，或者增加群体裂变。个体行为表明，蝙蝠在决定栖息地点时会考虑自己的信息和其他蝙蝠的行为。关于公共栖息地的群体决策反映了大多数一起栖息的蝙蝠可获得的信息，但相互冲突的信息导致一个群体的分裂加剧。我们的研究结果表明，裂变聚变社会允许个人避免不利于他们的多数决定。
Group decisions are required when group coordination is beneficial, but individuals can choose between alternatives. Despite the increased interest in animal group decision making, there is a lack of experimental field studies that investigate how animals with conflicting information make group decisions. In particular, no field studies have considered the influence of fission-fusion behaviour (temporary splitting into subgroups) on group decisions. We studied group decision making in two wild Bechstein's bat colonies, which are fission-fusion societies of stable individual composition. Since they frequently switch communal roosts, colony members must regularly make group decisions over where to roost. In the two-field experiments, we provided marked individuals with conflicting information about the suitability of potential roosts. We investigated whether conflicting information led to group decisions that followed a 'unanimous' or a 'majority' rule, or increased colony fission. Individual behaviour suggests that bats considered both their own information and the behaviour of others when deciding where to roost. Group decisions about communal roosts reflected the information available to a majority of the bats roosting together, but conflicting information led to an increased fission in one colony. Our results suggest that fission-fusion societies allow individuals to avoid majority decisions that are not in their favour.