Many animals live in societies where individuals frequently interact socially with each other. The social structures of these systems have in recent years been studied in many species by means of network analysis. Animal social networks is now a well-established research area that has provided important insights into animal behaviour, ecology, and social evolution. Animal social network research , however, seems to not be well known by scientists outside of the animal behaviour field . Here we provide an introduction to animal social networks for complex systems researchers . We believe that a better integration of animal social networks with the interdisciplinary field of complex systems would be mutually beneficial for various reasons. Increased collaboration with complex systems researchers could be valuable in solving challenges of particular importance to animal social network research. Furthermore, high-resolution datasets of social networks from different animal species can potentially be very useful for investigating general hypotheses about complex systems. In this paper, we describe what animal social networks are and how they are scientifically important; we give an overview of the methods commonly used to study animal social networks; and finally we highlight challenges in the study of animal social networks where interaction between animal social network research and general complex systems research could be particularly valuable. We hope that this will help to facilitate future interdisciplinary collaborations involving animal social networks, and lead to better integration of these networks into the field of complex systems.
Many animals live in societies where individuals frequently interact socially with each other. The social structures of these systems can be studied in depth by means of network analysis. A large number of studies on animal social networks in many species have in recent years been carried out within the biological research field of animal behaviour and have provided new insights into behaviour, ecology, and social evolution. This line of research is currently not well connected to the field of complex systems . Here we provide an introduction to animal social networks for complex systems scientists . We believe that an increased integration of animal social networks with the interdisciplinary field of complex systems networks would be beneficial for various reasons. Increased collaboration between researchers in this field and biologists studying animal social systems could be valuable in solving challenges of particular importance to animal social network research. Furthermore, high-resolution datasets of social networks from different animal species can be useful for investigating general hypotheses about complex systems. In this paper, we describe what animal social networks are and how they are scientifically important; we give an overview of the methods commonly used to study animal social networks; and finally we highlight challenges in the study of animal social networks where input from researchers with expertise in complex systems could be particularly valuable. We hope that this will help to facilitate further interdisciplinary collaborations involving animal social networks, and lead to better integration of these networks into the field of complex systems.
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Animal social networks is now a well-established research area that has provided important insights into animal
A large number of studies on animal social networks in many species have in recent years been carried out within the biological research field of animal behaviour and have provided new insights into
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Animal social network research , however, seems to not be well known by scientists outside of the animal behaviour field
This line of research is currently not well connected to the field of complex systems
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