Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager.
Group decisions on the timing of mutually exclusive activities pose a dilemma: monopolized decision-making by a single leader compromises the optimal timing of activities by the others, while independent decision-making by all group members undermines group coherence. Theory suggests that initiation...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0af1e1eb403e411080d3cc19a8af3570 2023-05-15T18:20:26+02:00 Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. Markus Öst Kim Jaatinen 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 https://doaj.org/article/0af1e1eb403e411080d3cc19a8af3570 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3655176?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 https://doaj.org/article/0af1e1eb403e411080d3cc19a8af3570 PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 5, p e64778 (2013) Medicine R Science Q article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 2022-12-31T13:11:18Z Group decisions on the timing of mutually exclusive activities pose a dilemma: monopolized decision-making by a single leader compromises the optimal timing of activities by the others, while independent decision-making by all group members undermines group coherence. Theory suggests that initiation of foraging should be determined by physiological demand in social foragers, thereby resolving the dilemma of group coordination. However, empirical support is scant, perhaps because intrinsic qualities predisposing individuals to leadership (social status, experience or personality), or their interactions with satiation level, have seldom been simultaneously considered. Here, we examine which females initiated foraging in eider (Somateria mollissima) brood-rearing coalitions, characterized by female dominance hierarchies and potentially large individual differences in energy requirements due to strenuous breeding effort. Several physiological and social factors, except for female breeding experience and boldness towards predators, explained foraging initiation. Initiators spent a larger proportion of time submerged during foraging bouts, had poorer body condition and smaller structural size, but they were also aggressive and occupied central positions. Initiation probability also declined with female group size as expected given random assignment of initiators. However, the relative importance of physiological predictors of leadership propensity (active foraging time, body condition, structural size) exceeded those of social predictors (aggressiveness, spatial position) by an order of magnitude. These results confirm recent theoretical work suggesting that 'leading according to need' is an evolutionary viable strategy regardless of group heterogeneity or underlying dominance structure. Article in Journal/Newspaper Somateria mollissima Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 8 5 e64778 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Markus Öst Kim Jaatinen Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Group decisions on the timing of mutually exclusive activities pose a dilemma: monopolized decision-making by a single leader compromises the optimal timing of activities by the others, while independent decision-making by all group members undermines group coherence. Theory suggests that initiation of foraging should be determined by physiological demand in social foragers, thereby resolving the dilemma of group coordination. However, empirical support is scant, perhaps because intrinsic qualities predisposing individuals to leadership (social status, experience or personality), or their interactions with satiation level, have seldom been simultaneously considered. Here, we examine which females initiated foraging in eider (Somateria mollissima) brood-rearing coalitions, characterized by female dominance hierarchies and potentially large individual differences in energy requirements due to strenuous breeding effort. Several physiological and social factors, except for female breeding experience and boldness towards predators, explained foraging initiation. Initiators spent a larger proportion of time submerged during foraging bouts, had poorer body condition and smaller structural size, but they were also aggressive and occupied central positions. Initiation probability also declined with female group size as expected given random assignment of initiators. However, the relative importance of physiological predictors of leadership propensity (active foraging time, body condition, structural size) exceeded those of social predictors (aggressiveness, spatial position) by an order of magnitude. These results confirm recent theoretical work suggesting that 'leading according to need' is an evolutionary viable strategy regardless of group heterogeneity or underlying dominance structure. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Markus Öst Kim Jaatinen |
author_facet |
Markus Öst Kim Jaatinen |
author_sort |
Markus Öst |
title |
Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
title_short |
Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
title_full |
Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
title_fullStr |
Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
title_sort |
relative importance of social status and physiological need in determining leadership in a social forager. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 https://doaj.org/article/0af1e1eb403e411080d3cc19a8af3570 |
genre |
Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Somateria mollissima |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 5, p e64778 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3655176?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 https://doaj.org/article/0af1e1eb403e411080d3cc19a8af3570 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064778 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e64778 |
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1766197968527949824 |