ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2013
Interaction rules underlying group decisions in homing pigeons.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed.
- Self-organized spectral adjustment in echolocation sounds within group-flying bats.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Duration-aware unsupervised segmentation reveals collective movement modes in homing flights of pigeon flocks.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Multi-level data fusion enables collaborative dynamics analysis in team sports using wearable sensor networks.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Collective order and group structure of shoaling fish subject to differing risk-level treatments with a sympatric predator.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Selective social interactions and speed-induced leadership in schooling fish.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Small energy benefits of in-wake flying in long-duration migratory flights.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Inferring social influence in animal groups across multiple timescales.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Dynamics of collective motion across time and species.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Grade-control outdoor turning flight of robo-pigeon with quantitative stimulus parameters.Frontiers in neurorobotics · 2023Article
- Neural networks reveal emergent properties of collective learning in democratic but not despotic groups.Animal behaviour · 2022Article
- Alignment with neighbours enables escape from dead ends in flocking models.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Selective interaction and its effect on collective motion.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Emergence of splits and collective turns in pigeon flocks under predation.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Coordinating directional switches in pigeon flocks: the role of nonlinear interactions.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Optimal use of simplified social information in sequential decision-making.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2021Article
- Quantifying individual influence in leading-following behavior of Bechstein's bats.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Rapid evolution of coordinated and collective movement in response to artificial selection.Science advances · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Travelling in groups gives animals opportunities to share route information by following cues from each other's movement. The outcome of group navigation will depend on how individuals respond to each other within a flock, school, swarm or herd. Despite the abundance of modelling studies, only recently have researchers developed techniques to determine the interaction rules among real animals. Here, we use high-resolution GPS (global positioning system) tracking to study these interactions in pairs of pigeons flying home from a familiar site. Momentary changes in velocity indicate alignment with the neighbour's direction, as well as attraction or avoidance depending on distance. Responses were stronger when the neighbour was in front. From the flocking behaviour, we develop a model to predict features of group navigation. Specifically, we show that the interactions between pigeons stabilize a side-by-side configuration, promoting bidirectional information transfer and reducing the risk of separation. However, if one bird gets in front it will lead directional choices. Our model further predicts, and observations confirm, that a faster bird (as measured from solo flights) will fly slightly in front and thus dominate the choice of homing route. Our results explain how group decisions emerge from individual differences in homing flight behaviour.
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Registered trials
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