ArticleScientific reports2022
Disentangling influence over group speed and direction reveals multiple patterns of influence in moving meerkat groups.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- The Impact of Different Degrees of Leadership on Collective Navigation in Follower-Leader Systems.Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2025Article
- Collective responses of flocking sheep (Ovis aries) to a herding dog (border collie).Communications biology · 2024Article
- Mapping vocal interactions in space and time differentiates signal broadcast versus signal exchange in meerkat groups.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The relative contribution of acoustic signals versus movement cues in group coordination and collective decision-making.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Individual and ecological heterogeneity promote complex communication in social vertebrate group decisions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Inferring social influence in animal groups across multiple timescales.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animals that travel together in groups must constantly come to consensus about both the direction and speed of movement, often simultaneously. Contributions to collective decisions may vary among group members, yet inferring who has influence over group decisions is challenging, largely due to the multifaceted nature of influence. Here we collected high-resolution GPS data from five habituated meerkat groups in their natural habitat during foraging and developed a method to quantify individual influence over both group direction and speed. We find that individual influence over direction and speed are correlated, but also exhibit substantial variation. Comparing patterns across social statuses reveals that dominant females have higher influence than other individuals over both group direction and speed. Individuals with high influence also tend to spend more time in the front of the group. We discuss our results in light of meerkat life-history and current literature on influence during group movement. Our method provides a general approach which can be applied to disentangle individual influence over group direction and speed in a wide range of species with cohesive movement, emphasizing the importance of integrating multiple lines of inquiry when inferring influence in moving animal groups.
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