Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Exeter TR10 9FE, UK.
J Exp Biol. 2023 Aug 1;226(15). doi: 10.1242/jeb.245776. Epub 2023 Aug 3.
Animals rely on movement to explore and exploit resources in their environment. While movement can provide energetic benefits, it also comes with energetic costs. This study examines how group phenotypic composition influences individual speed and energy expenditure during group travel in homing pigeons. We manipulated the composition of pigeon groups based on body mass and leadership rank. Our findings indicate that groups of 'leader' phenotypes show faster speeds and greater cohesion than 'follower' phenotype groups. Additionally, we show that groups of homogenous mass composition, whether all heavy or all light, were faster and expended less energy over the course of a whole flight than flocks composed of a mixture of heavy and light individuals. We highlight the importance of considering individual-level variation in social-level studies, and the interaction between individual and group-level traits in governing speed and the costs of travel.
动物依靠运动来探索和利用环境中的资源。虽然运动可以带来能量上的好处，但也伴随着能量消耗。本研究探讨了群体表型组成如何影响归巢鸽在群体旅行过程中的个体速度和能量消耗。我们根据体重和领导等级来操纵鸽子群体的组成。我们的研究结果表明，“领导者”表型的群体比“追随者”表型的群体表现出更快的速度和更高的凝聚力。此外，我们还发现，无论是全部重个体还是全部轻个体组成的同质群体，在整个飞行过程中都比由重个体和轻个体混合组成的群体速度更快，能量消耗更少。我们强调了在社会水平研究中考虑个体水平变化的重要性，以及个体和群体水平特征之间的相互作用在控制速度和旅行成本方面的重要性。
