191 research outputs found
The emergent properties of a dolphin social network
Many complex networks, including human societies, the Internet, the World
Wide Web and power grids, have surprising properties that allow vertices
(individuals, nodes, Web pages, etc.) to be in close contact and information to
be transferred quickly between them. Nothing is known of the emerging
properties of animal societies, but it would be expected that similar trends
would emerge from the topology of animal social networks. Despite its small
size (64 individuals), the Doubtful Sound community of bottlenose dolphins has
the same characteristics. The connectivity of individuals follows a complex
distribution that has a scale-free power-law distribution for large k. In
addition, the ability for two individuals to be in contact is unaffected by the
random removal of individuals. The removal of individuals with many links to
others does affect the length of the information path between two individuals,
but, unlike other scale-free networks, it does not fragment the cohesion of the
social network. These self-organizing phenomena allow the network to remain
united, even in the case of catastrophic death events.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Available online from the journal's web-site (See
http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/biol_lett/biol_lett.html) as well. To be
printed this yea
Efficient coding in dolphin surface behavioral patterns
We show that the law of brevity, i.e. the tendency of words to shorten as their frequency increases, is also found in dolphin surface behavioral patterns. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of the law in another species, suggesting that coding efficiency is not unique to humans.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Long-term correlations in the surface behavior of dolphins
Here we study the sequences of surface behavioral patterns of dolphins (Tursiops sp.) and find long-term correlations. We show that the long-term correlations are not of a trivial nature, i.e. they cannot be explained by the repetition of the same surface behavior many times in a row. Our findings suggest that dolphins have a long collective memory extending back at least to the 7-th past behavior. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of long-term correlations in the behavior of a non-human species.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Formalising the multidimensional nature of social networks
Individuals interact with conspecifics in a number of behavioural contexts or
dimensions. Here, we formalise this by considering a social network between n
individuals interacting in b behavioural dimensions as a nxnxb multidimensional
object. In addition, we propose that the topology of this object is driven by
individual needs to reduce uncertainty about the outcomes of interactions in
one or more dimension. The proposal grounds social network dynamics and
evolution in individual selection processes and allows us to define the
uncertainty of the social network as the joint entropy of its constituent
interaction networks. In support of these propositions we use simulations and
natural 'knock-outs' in a free-ranging baboon troop to show (i) that such an
object can display a small-world state and (ii) that, as predicted, changes in
interactions after social perturbations lead to a more certain social network,
in which the outcomes of interactions are easier for members to predict. This
new formalisation of social networks provides a framework within which to
predict network dynamics and evolution under the assumption that it is driven
by individuals seeking to reduce the uncertainty of their social environment.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Using qualitative models to define sustainable management for the commons in data poor conditions
Acknowledgments This work was funded by the University of Aberdeen and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. We thank MASTS (the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) for their role in funding this work and B. Leyshon and F. Manson (SNH) for fruitful discussion.Peer reviewedPostprin
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