AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF SENTINELS ON ANIMAT COLLECTIVES

摘要

It is well known that animal groups use sentinels. Wernmodel the benefits to a collective by incorporating sentinelrnbehaviour into an existing agent-based model consisting ofrnpredator and prey animats. Our model system is large enoughrnto exhibit multi-length and multi-time scale behaviours, andrnwe compare the effects of individal members of the preyrnspecies adopting sentinel roles, with the normal boom-bustrnbehaviour of the established model. We record significantrnchanges to animat spatial patterns and population size andrndemonstrate how such models can be used to enable variousrn“what-if” scenarios and provide interesting insights and allowrnexploration of situations that would be impossible to measurernduring field research into real animal groups.