Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals

Morrell, Lesley.; Herbert-Read, James.; Schaerf, Timothy Martin.; Ward, Ashley.; Ward, Ashley J. W..; Schaerf, Timothy M..; Herbert-Read, James E..; Sumpter, David J. T..; Webster, Mike M..; Sumpter, David J.T..

doi:10.1098/rsos.170043

Authors

David J.T. Sumpter

Ashley J. W. Ward

Timothy M. Schaerf

James Herbert-Read

James E. Herbert-Read

Dr Lesley Morrell L.Morrell@hull.ac.uk
Associate Dean (Education)

Timothy Martin Schaerf

David J. T. Sumpter

Ashley Ward

Mike M. Webster

Abstract

Collective motion describes the global properties of moving groups of animals and the self-organized, coordinated patterns of individual behaviour that produce them. We examined the group-level patterns and local interactions between individuals in wild, free-ranging shoals of three-spine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Our data reveal that the highest frequencies of near-neighbour encounters occur at between one and two body lengths from a focal fish, with the peak frequency alongside a focal individual. Fish also show the highest alignment with these laterally placed individuals, and generally with animals in front of themselves. Furthermore, fish are more closely matched in size, speed and orientation to their near neighbours than to more distant neighbours, indicating local organization within groups. Among the group level properties reported here, we find that polarization is strongly influenced by group speed, but also the variation in speed among individuals and the nearest neighbour distances of group members. While we find no relationship between group order and group size, we do find that larger groups tend to have lower nearest neighbour distances, which in turn may be important in maintaining group order.

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jul 12, 2017
Journal	Royal Society open science
Electronic ISSN	2054-5703
Publisher	Royal Society, The
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	4
Issue	7
Article Number	ARTN 170043
Pages	170043
Institution Citation	Ward, A. J. W., Schaerf, T. M., Herbert-Read, J. E., Morrell, L., Sumpter, D. J. T., & Webster, M. M. (2017). Local interactions and global properties of wild, free-ranging stickleback shoals. Royal Society Open Science, 4(7), 170043. doi:10.1098/rsos.170043
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170043
Keywords	Collective behaviour, Schooling, Grouping
Publisher URL	http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/7/170043
Copyright Statement	© 2017 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Additional Information	This is a copy of an open access article published in Royal Society open science, 2017, v.4.

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Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Authors.
Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.