Animals receive multiple benefits from living in groups, including protection from predators, access to mates, and increased feeding efficiency. Another proposed benefit of group living is improved decision accuracy, with larger animal groups being more likely to choose the optimal decision compared to smaller groups or individuals. However, the majority of our understanding of collective decision making comes from studies on spatial decisions, ‘where to go’. Comparatively little is known about timing decisions, ‘when to go’, even though they have important consequences for the fitness of a decision. For example, a migratory animal that travels to the correct location at the wrong time may face adverse weather conditions or miss opportunities to mate, rendering the decision maladaptive. Despite this, relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which animal groups make timing decisions, and how group size influences these decisions. Animals in groups which perform coordinated actions have an additional challenge of also considering the timing of their group member’s decisions. Little is known about how living in groups influences how long it takes individuals within a group to make decisions. Therefore, the claim that larger groups are ‘better’ decision makers is incomplete without considering how group size influences when a decision is made.

My project aims to investigate how group living affects both the timing of decisions and the time taken to make them, while exploring the functional benefits and costs of these decisions. I explore these questions by studying the foraging behaviour of sandeels (Ammodytes tobianus). Sandeels can completely bury under the sand to avoid their predators but emerge to feed in groups in the water column. I use laboratory experiments to explore how manipulations of group size, conspecific behaviour, and environmental conditions influence the timing of foraging decisions in sandeels.

This research is funded through the Whitten Studentship for Aquatic Biology.