Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses

Abstract The study of non-human multilevel societies can give us insights into how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system, but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data obtained from drones to verify th...

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Autores principales:	Tamao Maeda, Sakiho Ochi, Monamie Ringhofer, Sebastian Sosa, Cédric Sueur, Satoshi Hirata, Shinya Yamamoto
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b69c33f2ab4f485c80a57517b9603fd8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b69c33f2ab4f485c80a57517b9603fd82021-12-02T15:13:01ZAerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses10.1038/s41598-020-79790-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/b69c33f2ab4f485c80a57517b9603fd82021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79790-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The study of non-human multilevel societies can give us insights into how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system, but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data obtained from drones to verify the presence of a multilevel structure in a feral horse society. We took aerial photos of individuals that appeared in pre-fixed areas and collected positional data. The threshold distance of the association was defined based on the distribution pattern of the inter-individual distance. The association rates of individuals showed bimodality, suggesting the presence of small social organizations or “units”. Inter-unit distances were significantly smaller than those in randomly replaced data, which showed that units associate to form a higher-level social organization or “herd”. Moreover, this herd had a structure where large mixed-sex units were more likely to occupy the center than small mixed-sex units and all-male-units, which were instead on the periphery. These three pieces of evidence regarding the existence of units, unit association, and stable positioning among units strongly indicated a multilevel structure in horse society. The present study contributes to understanding the functions and mechanisms of multilevel societies through comparisons with other social indices and models as well as cross-species comparisons in future studies.Tamao MaedaSakiho OchiMonamie RinghoferSebastian SosaCédric SueurSatoshi HirataShinya YamamotoNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Tamao Maeda Sakiho Ochi Monamie Ringhofer Sebastian Sosa Cédric Sueur Satoshi Hirata Shinya Yamamoto Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
description	Abstract The study of non-human multilevel societies can give us insights into how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system, but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data obtained from drones to verify the presence of a multilevel structure in a feral horse society. We took aerial photos of individuals that appeared in pre-fixed areas and collected positional data. The threshold distance of the association was defined based on the distribution pattern of the inter-individual distance. The association rates of individuals showed bimodality, suggesting the presence of small social organizations or “units”. Inter-unit distances were significantly smaller than those in randomly replaced data, which showed that units associate to form a higher-level social organization or “herd”. Moreover, this herd had a structure where large mixed-sex units were more likely to occupy the center than small mixed-sex units and all-male-units, which were instead on the periphery. These three pieces of evidence regarding the existence of units, unit association, and stable positioning among units strongly indicated a multilevel structure in horse society. The present study contributes to understanding the functions and mechanisms of multilevel societies through comparisons with other social indices and models as well as cross-species comparisons in future studies.
format	article
author	Tamao Maeda Sakiho Ochi Monamie Ringhofer Sebastian Sosa Cédric Sueur Satoshi Hirata Shinya Yamamoto
author_facet	Tamao Maeda Sakiho Ochi Monamie Ringhofer Sebastian Sosa Cédric Sueur Satoshi Hirata Shinya Yamamoto
author_sort	Tamao Maeda
title	Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
title_short	Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
title_full	Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
title_fullStr	Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
title_full_unstemmed	Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
title_sort	aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b69c33f2ab4f485c80a57517b9603fd8
work_keys_str_mv	AT tamaomaeda aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT sakihoochi aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT monamieringhofer aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT sebastiansosa aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT cedricsueur aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT satoshihirata aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses AT shinyayamamoto aerialdroneobservationsidentifiedamultilevelsocietyinferalhorses
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Aerial drone observations identified a multilevel society in feral horses

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