Abstract

Individuals can behave as either leaders or followers in many taxa of collectively moving animals. Leaders initiate movements and may incur predation risks, while followers are thought to be more risk-averse. As a group encounters different challenges and ecological situations, individuals in the group may change their social role. We investigated leader and follower roles using dyads of captive house sparrow (Passer domesticus) during both exploration of a novel environment and a simulation of predator attack. During the exploration of a novel environment, individuals behaved consistently either as leaders or followers. However, in the simulated attack tests, individuals in the dyads switched their roles, with “followers” leading the escape flights and “leaders” following them. Our study provides evidence of 1) consistent differences between individuals in behavior during social escape and 2) a relationship between social roles across different situations. We suggest that such relationship hinges on individual risk-taking tendencies, which manifest through different social roles across different ecological situations. We further speculate that risk-taking individuals might gain benefits by following risk-averse individuals during an escape flight.

中文翻译：

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圈养麻雀的二元领导者 - 追随者动态在不同情况下发生变化

摘要

在许多集体活动的动物分类群中，个体既可以充当领导者，也可以充当追随者。领导者发起运动并可能招致捕食风险，而追随者被认为更规避风险。当一个群体遇到不同的挑战和生态环境时，群体中的个体可能会改变他们的社会角色。我们使用圈养麻雀的成对研究了领导者和追随者的角色（Passerdomesticus) 在探索新环境和模拟捕食者攻击期间。在探索新环境的过程中，个人始终如一地作为领导者或追随者行事。然而，在模拟攻击测试中，二人组中的个人转换了他们的角色，“追随者”领导逃生飞行，“领导者”跟随他们。我们的研究提供了证据，证明 1) 个体在社交逃避过程中行为的一致性差异，以及 2) 不同情况下社会角色之间的关系。我们认为这种关系取决于个人冒险倾向，这通过不同生态环境中的不同社会角色表现出来。我们进一步推测，冒险的个人可能会通过在逃跑过程中跟随厌恶风险的个人而获得好处。