https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-50093-5
Regular Article
Leadership emergence in a data-driven model of zebrafish shoals with speed modulation⋆
1 Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
2 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, NY, USA
3 Department of Electrical Engineering and ICT, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
a e-mail: m.dibernardo@bristol.ac.uk
Received: 29 April 2015
Revised: 2 November 2015
Published online: 15 December 2015
Models of collective animal motion can greatly aid in the design and interpretation of behavioural experiments that seek to unravel, isolate, and manipulate the determinants of leader-follower relationships. Here, we develop an initial model of zebrafish social behaviour, which accounts for both speed and angular velocity regulatory interactions among conspecifics. Using this model, we analyse the macroscopic observables of small shoals influenced by an “informed” agent, showing that leaders which actively modulate their speed with respect to their neighbours can entrain and stabilise collective dynamics of the naïve shoal.
Supplementary material in the form of two mp4 files available from the Journal web page at http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-50093-5
© The Author(s), 2015
Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
