Sueur Cédric, Ishizuka Shintaro, Kaigaishi Yu, Yamamoto Shinya
Université de Strasbourg, IPHC UMR7178, CNRS, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 1;14(23):3468. doi: 10.3390/ani14233468.
Huddling behaviour is observed across various mammalian and avian species. Huddling, a behaviour wherein animals maintain close physical contact with conspecifics for warmth and social bonding, is widely documented among species in cold environments as a crucial thermoregulatory mechanism. Interestingly, on Shodoshima, Japanese macaques form exceptionally large huddling clusters, often exceeding 50 individuals, a significant deviation from the smaller groups observed in other populations (Arashyama, Katsuyama, and Taksakiyama) and climates. This study aims to uncover the mechanisms behind the formation and size of these huddling clusters, proposing that such behaviours can be explained by simple probabilistic rules influenced by environmental conditions, the current cluster size, and individual decisions. Employing a computational model developed in Netlogo, we seek to demonstrate how emergent properties like the formation and dissolution of clusters arise from collective individual actions. We investigate whether the observed differences in huddling behaviour, particularly the larger cluster sizes on Shodoshima compared to those in colder habitats, reflect variations in social tolerance and cohesion. The model incorporates factors such as environmental temperature, cluster size, and individual decision-making, offering insights into the adaptability of social behaviours under environmental pressures. The findings suggest that temperature plays a crucial role in influencing huddling behaviour, with larger clusters forming in colder climates as individuals seek warmth. However, the study also highlights the importance of joining and leaving a cluster in terms of probability in the dynamics of huddling behaviour. We discussed the large clusters on Shodoshima as a result of a combination of environmental factors and a unique social tolerance and cohesion among the macaques. This study contributes to our understanding of complex social phenomena through the lens of self-organisation, illustrating how simple local interactions can give rise to intricate social structures and behaviours.
在各种哺乳动物和鸟类物种中都观察到了聚堆行为。聚堆是一种动物为了取暖和建立社会联系而与同种个体保持紧密身体接触的行为，在寒冷环境中的物种中被广泛记录为一种关键的体温调节机制。有趣的是，在小豆岛上，日本猕猴形成了异常大的聚堆群体，通常超过50只个体，这与在其他种群（岚山、胜山和泷崎山）以及其他气候条件下观察到的较小群体有显著差异。本研究旨在揭示这些聚堆群体形成和规模背后的机制，提出这种行为可以用受环境条件、当前群体规模和个体决策影响的简单概率规则来解释。我们利用在Netlogo中开发的计算模型，试图证明聚堆群体的形成和解散等涌现特性是如何从个体的集体行动中产生的。我们研究观察到的聚堆行为差异，特别是小豆岛上的群体规模比寒冷栖息地的更大，是否反映了社会容忍度和凝聚力的变化。该模型纳入了环境温度、群体规模和个体决策等因素，为环境压力下社会行为的适应性提供了见解。研究结果表明，温度在影响聚堆行为方面起着关键作用，随着个体寻求温暖，在较冷的气候中会形成更大的群体。然而，该研究还强调了在聚堆行为动态中加入和离开群体的概率的重要性。我们讨论了小豆岛上出现大群体是环境因素以及猕猴之间独特的社会容忍度和凝聚力共同作用的结果。这项研究通过自组织的视角有助于我们理解复杂的社会现象，说明了简单的局部相互作用如何能够产生复杂的社会结构和行为。
