Collective animal navigation and migratory culture: from theoretical models to empirical evidence

Andrew M Berdahl; Albert B Kao; Andrea Flack; Peter A H Westley; Edward A Codling; Iain D Couzin; Anthony I Dell; Dora Biro

doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0009

Collective animal navigation and migratory culture: from theoretical models to empirical evidence

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2018 May 19;373(1746):20170009. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0009.

Authors

Andrew M Berdahl^{1

2}, Albert B Kao³, Andrea Flack^{4

5}, Peter A H Westley⁶, Edward A Codling⁷, Iain D Couzin^{5

8

9}, Anthony I Dell^{10

11}, Dora Biro¹²

Affiliations

¹ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA berdahl@uw.edu.
² School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
³ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA albert.kao@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
⁶ Department of Fisheries, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
⁷ Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK.
⁸ Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, Germany.
⁹ Chair of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
¹⁰ National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, Alton, IL 62024, USA.
¹¹ Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA.
¹² Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK dora.biro@zoo.ox.ac.uk.

Abstract

Animals often travel in groups, and their navigational decisions can be influenced by social interactions. Both theory and empirical observations suggest that such collective navigation can result in individuals improving their ability to find their way and could be one of the key benefits of sociality for these species. Here, we provide an overview of the potential mechanisms underlying collective navigation, review the known, and supposed, empirical evidence for such behaviour and highlight interesting directions for future research. We further explore how both social and collective learning during group navigation could lead to the accumulation of knowledge at the population level, resulting in the emergence of migratory culture.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'.

Keywords: animal culture; collective learning; emergent sensing; leadership; many wrongs; migration.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Animal Migration*
Animals
Behavior, Animal*
Models, Biological
Social Behavior
Spatial Navigation*