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Individualism versus collective movement during travel
Clare T M Doherty1,2, Mark E Laidre3,4
1Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, 78 College Street, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA. clare.doherty.gr@dartmouth.edu.
Scientific Reports
|May 7, 2022
Summary
Social hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus) were studied using simulated collective movement. Despite engagement, individuals showed no directional bias, suggesting independent decision-making in these "individualists".
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Ecology
- Animal Collective Behavior
- Marine Biology
Background:
- Collective movement can offer benefits over solitary action.
- Studying collective movement's impact on individual decisions is challenging due to difficulties in controlling groups.
- Simulating collective movement in natural environments is crucial for experimental testing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally test how simulated collective movement influences individual decisions in social hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus).
- To investigate the directional bias of focal individuals when exposed to a moving collective.
- To explore the role of individualistic behavior in social hermit crabs' movement patterns.
Main Methods:
- Developed a novel technique using large architectural arrays of shells to simulate collective movement of hermit crabs in the wild.
- Systematically varied the simulated collective's direction and the environmental context (danger level).
- Utilized drone videography to record and analyze the movement of focal individual crabs.
Main Results:
- Focal individual hermit crabs showed no significant directional bias despite interacting with the simulated collective.
- Individuals exhibited substantial movement variability across different stimulus directions and contexts.
- Individuals achieved shorter displacements in the presence of the collective, indicating a 'traffic' effect rather than directional influence.
Conclusions:
- Social hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus) demonstrate individualistic behavior, moving with opportunistic independence.
- Their protective shell architecture likely contributes to their autonomy in movement decisions.
- The novel experimental approach allows for further research into the interplay between collective and individual movement.
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