Experience of the signaller explains the use of social versus personal information in the context of sentinel behaviour in meerkats

dc.contributor.authorRauber, R.
dc.contributor.authorManser, Marta B.
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-18T06:47:40Z
dc.date.available2018-10-18T06:47:40Z
dc.date.issued2018-08-23
dc.description.abstractTo maximise foraging opportunities while simultaneously avoiding predation, group-living animals can obtain personal information on food availability and predation risk and/or rely on social information provided by group members. Although mainly associated with low costs of information acquisition, social information has the potential to be irrelevant or inaccurate. In this study we use playbacks of individually distinct sentinel calming calls produced during sentinel behaviour, a form of coordinated vigilance behaviour, to show that meerkats (Suricata suricatta) discriminate between social information provided by different sentinels and adjust their personal vigilance behaviour according to the individual that is played back. We found that foraging group members acquired the lowest amounts of personal information when hearing social information provided by experienced individuals that act as sentinels most often in their group and littermates. Our study shows that social information can be flexibly used in the context of sentinel behaviour in order to optimize the trade-off between foraging and vigilance behaviours dependent on discrimination among signallers. We also provide novel evidence that the experience of sentinels rather than their age or dominance status is the main factor affecting the extent to which individuals use social information.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentMammal Research Instituteen_ZA
dc.description.librarianam2018en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipThe University of Zurich funded RR, MBM and all the research expenses. The long-term field site KMP was financed by the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich, and the MAVA foundation. This paper has relied on records of individual identities and/or life histories maintained by the KMP, which has been supported by the European Research Council (Grant No 294494 to T.H. Clutton-Brock since 1/7/2012), the University of Zurich and the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria.en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://www.nature.com/srepen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationRauber, R. & Manser, M.B. 2018, 'Experience of the signaller explains the use of social versus personal information in the context of sentinel behaviour in meerkats', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, art. 11506, pp. 1-7.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2045-2322 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1038/s41598-018-29678-y
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/66940
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherNature Publishing Groupen_ZA
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.en_ZA
dc.subjectPredation risken_ZA
dc.subjectAgeen_ZA
dc.subjectDiscriminationen_ZA
dc.subjectMeerkat (Suricata suricatta)en_ZA
dc.subjectEvolutionen_ZA
dc.subjectReliabilityen_ZA
dc.subjectPublic informationen_ZA
dc.subjectCooperative behavioren_ZA
dc.subjectGround squirrelsen_ZA
dc.subjectAlarm callsen_ZA
dc.subjectYellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris)en_ZA
dc.subjectSentinel behaviouren_ZA
dc.titleExperience of the signaller explains the use of social versus personal information in the context of sentinel behaviour in meerkatsen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Rauber_Experience_2018.pdf
Size:
1.06 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Article

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: