Virginia Tech
    • Log in
    View Item 
    •   VTechWorks Home
    • College of Science (COS)
    • Department of Biological Sciences
    • Scholarly Works, Department of Biological Sciences
    • View Item
    •   VTechWorks Home
    • College of Science (COS)
    • Department of Biological Sciences
    • Scholarly Works, Department of Biological Sciences
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Decision-making in pigeon flocks: a democratic view of leadership

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Main article (237.7Kb)
    Downloads: 226
    Date
    2012-07
    Author
    Jorge, P. E.
    Marques, Paulo A. M.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    When travelling in groups, animals frequently have to make decisions on the direction of travel. These decisions can be based on consensus, when all individuals take part in the decision (i.e. democratic decision; social information), or leadership, when one member or a minority of members make the decision (i.e. despotic decision; personal information). Here we investigated whether decision-making on the navigation of small flocks is based on democratic or despotic decisions. Using individual and flock releases as the experimental approach, we compared the homing performances of homing pigeons that fly singly and in groups of three. Our findings show that although small groups were either governed (i.e. when individuals in the flock had age differences) or not (i.e. when individuals in the flock had the same age) by leaders, with concern to decision-making they were all ruled by democratic decisions. Moreover, the individual homing performances were not associated with leadership. Because true leaders did not assume right away the front position in the flock, we suggest that as in human groups, starting from a central position is more effective as it allows leaders to not only transmit their own information but also to average the tendencies of the other group members. Together, the results highlight the importance of democratic decisions in group decision-making.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10919/25340
    Collections
    • Scholarly Works, Department of Biological Sciences [807]

    If you believe that any material in VTechWorks should be removed, please see our policy and procedure for Requesting that Material be Amended or Removed. All takedown requests will be promptly acknowledged and investigated.

    Virginia Tech | University Libraries | Contact Us
     

     

    VTechWorks

    AboutPoliciesHelp

    Browse

    All of VTechWorksCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Log inRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    If you believe that any material in VTechWorks should be removed, please see our policy and procedure for Requesting that Material be Amended or Removed. All takedown requests will be promptly acknowledged and investigated.

    Virginia Tech | University Libraries | Contact Us