One of the hardest problems in studying animal behaviour is to quantify patterns of social interaction at the group level. Recent technological developments in global positioning system (GPS) devices have opened up new avenues for locating animals with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Likewise, advances in computing power have enabled new levels of data analyses with complex mathematical models to address unresolved problems in animal behaviour, such as the nature of group geometry and the impact of group-level interactions on individuals. Here, we present an information theory-based tool for the analysis of group behaviour. We illustrate its affordances with GPS data collected from a freely interacting pack of 15 Siberian huskies (Canis lupus familiaris). We found that individual freedom in movement decisions was limited to about 4%, while a subject’s location could be predicted with 96% median accuracy by the locations of other group members. Dominant individuals were less affected by other individuals’ locations than subordinate ones, and same-sex individuals influenced each other more strongly than opposite-sex individuals. We also found that kinship relationships increased the mutual dependencies of individuals. Moreover, the network stability of the pack deteriorated with an upcoming feeding event. Together, we conclude that information theory-based approaches, coupled with state-of-the-art bio-logging technology, provide a powerful tool for future studies of animal social interactions beyond the dyadic level.

中文翻译：

---

动物群几何的信息理论方法。

研究动物行为的最困难的问题之一是在小组级别量化社交互动的模式。全球定位系统（GPS）设备的最新技术发展为定位具有前所未有的时空分辨率的动物开辟了新途径。同样，计算能力的提高也使具有复杂数学模型的数据分析达到了新的水平，以解决动物行为中未解决的问题，例如群体几何的性质以及群体间互动对个体的影响。在这里，我们提出了一种基于信息论的工具来分析群体行为。我们用从15个西伯利亚哈士奇犬（Canis lupus handsomeis）的自由交互包中收集的GPS数据说明了其承受能力）。我们发现，个人运动决策的自由度被限制在4％左右，而其他小组成员的位置可以以96％的中值准确度预测受试者的位置。支配地位的人比下属地位的人受其他人位置的影响要小，同性个体的影响力比异性个体更强。我们还发现亲属关系增加了个人的相互依赖性。此外，随着即将发生的进食事件，包装的网络稳定性恶化。综上所述，我们得出的结论是，基于信息论的方法与最新的生物记录技术相结合，为将来在二元水平以外的动物社会互动研究提供了强大的工具。