Collective decision-making is a daily occurrence in the lives of many group-living animals,
and can have critical consequences for the fitness of individuals. Understanding how …

The social decisions that individuals make—who to interact with and how frequently—give
rise to social structure. The resulting social structure then determines how individuals …

Conflicts of interest about where to go and what to do are a primary challenge of group
living. However, it remains unclear how consensus is achieved in stable groups with …

Understanding the functional links between social structure and population processes is a
central aim of evolutionary ecology. Multiple types of interactions can be represented by …

There is increasing evidence that animal groups can maintain coordinated behaviour and
make collective decisions based on simple interaction rules. Effective collective action may …

Highlights•Indirect connections are heritable and predictors of fitness in some
species.•Some animals recognize and may strategically manipulate third-party …

Social network analysis is quickly becoming an established framework to study the structure
of animal social systems. To explore the social network of a population, observers must …

In despotically driven animal societies, one or a few individuals tend to have a
disproportionate influence on group decision-making and actions. However, global …

Background The use of accelerometers in bio-logging devices has proved to be a powerful
tool for the quantification of animal behaviour. While bio-logging techniques are being used …

How different levels of biological organization interact to shape each other's function is a
central question in biology. One particularly important topic in this context is how individuals' …