title: Reality mining of animal social systems.
abstract: The increasing miniaturisation of animal-tracking technology has made it possible to gather exceptionally detailed machine-sensed data on the social dynamics of almost entire populations of individuals, in both terrestrial and aquatic study systems. Here, we review important issues concerning the collection of such data, and their processing and analysis, to identify the most promising approaches in the emerging field of 'reality mining'. Automated technologies can provide data sensing at time intervals small enough to close the gap between social patterns and their underlying processes, providing insights into how social structures arise and change dynamically over different timescales. Especially in conjunction with experimental manipulations, reality mining promises significant advances in basic and applied research on animal social systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, 12587 Berlin, Germany. j.krause@igb-berlin.de
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arlinghaus
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Psorakis
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rutz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D057225:Data Mining / Q000379:methods*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: animal social network; biologging; biotelemetry; group-living; high-resolution data; movement; proximity logging; social behaviour