Fission-fusion dynamics in sheep: the influence of resource distribution and temporal activity patterns
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(Published version)
Date
2023
Authors
Della Libera, K.
Strandburg-Peshkin, A.
Griffith, S.C.
Leu, S.T.
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Journal article
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Royal Society Open Science, 2023; 10(7):1-14
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Katja Della Libera, Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin, Simon C. Griffith, and Stephan T. Leu
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Abstract
Fission-fusion events, i.e. changes to the size and composition of animal social groups, are a mechanism to adjust the social environment in response to short-term changes in the cost-benefit ratio of group living. Furthermore, the time and location of fission-fusion events provide insight into the underlying drivers of these dynamics. Here, we describe a method for identifying group membership over time and for extracting fission-fusion events from animal tracking data. We applied this method to high-resolution GPS data of free-ranging sheep (Ovis aries). Group size was highest during times when sheep typically rest (midday and at night), and when anti-predator benefits of grouping are high while costs of competition are low. Consistent with this, fission and fusion frequencies were highest during early morning and late evening, suggesting that social restructuring occurs during periods of high activity. However, fission and fusion events were not more frequent near food patches and water resources when adjusted for overall space use. This suggests a limited role of resource competition. Our results elucidate the dynamics of grouping in response to social and ecological drivers, and we provide a tool for investigating these dynamics in other species.
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Corrected by: Correction to: 'Fission-fusion dynamics in sheep: the influence of resource distribution and temporal activity patterns' (2023) by Della Libera et al., in R. Soc. Open Sci. 10, 230402. (Published online 19 July 2023) (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230402). Owing to an error in the code, the activity-level data used in the linear-mixed model was incorrect changing the quantitative results of the model. All other activity measures used throughout the publication were unaffected and remain correct. Here we correct the values in table 1. In the Discussion of the original paper, we compared the effect size of distance and activity: ‘The estimated coefficients for the scaled activity level and scaled distance show that the effect of the distance was stronger’. With the corrected values, the impact of these factors is comparable.
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© 2023 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.