Dear MARMAMers,

My coauthors and I are pleased to share our review on collective
decision-making in aquatic mammals, now online (early view) as an open
access article in Mammal Review.
Zwamborn E, Boon N & Whitehead H. Collective decision-making in aquatic
mammals. Mammal Review.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mam.12321

Abstract:
Collective decision-making is an essential part of day-to-day life for
group-living animals. These decisions can be unshared (e.g. leadership) or
shared (e.g. consensus). Aquatic mammals face particular challenges when
making collective decisions, including a three-dimensional habitat that can
make group coordination and collective navigation a challenge. We
systematically reviewed literature on decision-making in non-human mammals
by examining the types of collective decisions observed and hypotheses used
to structure analyses. Most of the current literature was centred around
terrestrial species, particularly within primates and artiodactyls. There
are no collective decision-making studies on aquatic mammal species outside
of cetaceans. Both unshared and shared decision-making have been reported
in whales and dolphins, with leadership found in killer whales *Orcinus
orca* and bottlenose dolphins *Tursiops* sp*.* and consensus decisions in
sperm whales *Physeter macrocephalus. *Five recommendations for
decision-making research include: 1) clearly delineating the temporal
components of decision-making, 2) standardising research to allow for
comparisons, 3) considering both shared and unshared decision-making, 4)
analysing decision-making across behavioural contexts, and 5) avoiding
anthropomorphic terminology. Future studies of collective decision-making
will help us better understand how non-human mammals overcome environmental
and contextual challenges – particularly in the case of aquatic species
such as cetaceans, which face challenges related to their aquatic
environment and exhibit phenomena such as mass strandings.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Best,
       Elizabeth

*******************************
Elizabeth Zwamborn MSc
PhD Candidate
Whitehead Lab
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS
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