Behavioural synchronization in a multilevel society of feral horses

Abstract

Behavioural synchrony among individuals is essential for group-living organisms. The functioning of synchronization in a multilevel society, which is a nested assemblage of multiple social levels between many individuals, remains largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to build a model that explained the synchronization of activity in a multilevel society of feral horses. Multi-agent-based models were used based on four hypotheses: A) horses do not synchronize, B) horses synchronize with any individual in any unit, C) horses synchronize only within units, and D) horses synchronize across and within units, but internal synchronization is stronger. The empirical data obtained from drone observations best supported hypothesis D. This result suggests that animals in a multilevel society coordinate with other conspecifics not only within a unit but also at an inter-unit level. In this case, inter-individual distances are much longer than those in most previous models which only considered local interaction within a few body lengths.