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Fish pool their experience to solve problems collectively

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Webster_skills_pooling_PURE_version.pdf (568.4Kb)
Date
18/04/2017
Author
Webster, Mike M.
Whalen, Andrew Carl Zanton
Laland, Kevin Neville
Keywords
QH301 Biology
NDAS
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
Access to information is a key advantage of grouping. Although experienced animals can lead others to solve problems, less is known about whether partially informed individuals can pool experiences to overcome challenges collectively. Here we provide evidence of such ‘experience-pooling’. We presented shoals of sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with a two-stage foraging task requiring them to find and access hidden food. Individual fish were either inexperienced or had knowledge of just one of the stages. Shoals containing individuals trained in each of the stages pooled their expertise, allowing more fish to access the food, and to do so more rapidly, compared with other shoal compositions. Strong social effects were identified: the presence of experienced individuals increased the likelihood of untrained fish completing each stage. These findings demonstrate that animal groups can integrate individual experience to solve multi-stage problems, and have implications for our understanding of social foraging, migration and social systems.
Citation
Webster , M M , Whalen , A C Z & Laland , K N 2017 , ' Fish pool their experience to solve problems collectively ' , Nature Ecology and Evolution , vol. 1 , 0135 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0135
Publication
Nature Ecology and Evolution
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0135
ISSN
2397-334X
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2017 the Authors. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0135
Description
This work was funded by an ERC Advanced grant to KNL (EVOCULTURE, Ref: 232823)
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11881

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