Abstract
BackgroundAnimals living in social groups can benefit from conducting the same behaviour as other group members. If this synchronisation is achieved by copying the behaviour of other individuals, we would expect synchrony to be more likely when pairs of individuals are close together.ResultsBy comparing the behaviour of a focal individual with its nearest, second nearest and third nearest neighbour and a control individual, we show that pairings of fallow deer Dama dama are more likely to be active or inactive at the same moment in time if they are closer together. We also demonstrate that synchronisation in the group happens more often than would be expected by chance.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that there is a relationship between the synchronisation of behaviour and the spatial proximity of individuals. Spatial proximity is likely to be an important influence on how likely individuals are to be synchronised, although care needs to be taken to separate social and environmental influences on individual behaviour.
Highlights
Many animal species spend all or part of their lives in social groups with other members of their species [1, 2]
Behavioural synchrony is often seen in sexually segregated species, and is suggested to be a result of sexually dimorphic males and females having differing energetic requirements and activity patterns
Using a similar technique to that used for red deer [10], we suggest that there is a relationship between synchronisation of behaviour and spatial proximity
Summary
Many animal species spend all or part of their lives in social groups with other members of their species [1, 2]. Living together brings benefits to individuals, but it is likely that the behaviour that most individuals show within the group involves elements of conformity or response to the behaviour of other group members. Behavioural synchronisation occurs when animals in a group perform the same behaviour as each other at the same moment in time (so focussing on what [11] describe as activity synchrony), and the degree of synchrony seen will be reflected by the proportion of time that individuals conform in their behaviour (see [12] for more discussion of how we can measure this, and what it is that we are measuring). Animals living in social groups can benefit from conducting the same behaviour as other group members If this synchronisation is achieved by copying the behaviour of other individuals, we would expect synchrony to be more likely when pairs of individuals are close together
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