Communication in collectives: the dynamics of multi-participant vocal interactions

Deciding what to do and where to go as a group can be challenging, so many animals use sophisticated signalling systems, like shouts or calls, to pass information on to other members. Yet, it is not easy to process and evaluate signals coming from several individuals, often at the same time. It is also not easy to make decisions or reach group consensus based on, often conflicting, information originating from individuals spread over a large area.

Using meerkat groups as a model system, the project Communication in collectives: The dynamics of multi-participant vocal interactions (follow-up to Signaling and collective decision-making in moving animal groups) will illuminate the pathways by which vocal signals are propagated both spatially and temporally within groups.

In collaboration with the long-term Kalahari Meerkat Project, we are tagging individual meerkats with small loggers that record position and acoustic information. By combing boots-on-the-ground field biology with emerging computational approaches, the project seeks to provide insight into:

1. How are the spatial “interaction ranges” of calls and their local interaction patterns related to call function and acoustic structure?

2. How do individual characteristics (i.e. age, sex, rank) and social relationships affect response selectivity and the dynamics of signalling interactions?

3. How do the combined signal-based and individual-based effects on signal propagation shape the propagation or containment of signals across the group, and does this in turn translate into changes in group behavioural state?