Jacques Gautrais
Mail contact on domain gautrais.net
Academic Researcher (CNRS — France)
Université de Toulouse - CNRS (UMR 5169)
Collective motion in sheep
The aim is to explain collective movements in sheep within an individual-based framework, using experiments to quantify the individual behavioral rules in varying neighborhoods.
Experiments are made at domaine du Merle (SupAgro Montpellier).
Collaborations with
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For her PhD, Marie-Hélène Pillot has designed an experimental protocol to make a trained sheep to depart from a group of naive conspecific (and reach a food source).
Using this protocol with increasing small group sizes, we showed that the naives decide to follow the trained with a response rate which is stimulated by the number of naives that have already followed, but inhibited by the number of naives which still have not.
As a functional consequence, the group keeps optimally cohesive most of the time, for any group size.
We are presently working with larger groups in large pasture, to model how this individual stimulus/response function scales in large groups, where departures are perceived only locally
Typical patterns of collective motion in sheep
Sylvain Toulet
PhD starting Sept 2012