title: Optimizing the search for resources by sharing information: Mongolian gazelles as a case study.
abstract: We investigate the relationship between communication and search efficiency in a biological context by proposing a model of Brownian searchers with long-range pairwise interactions. After a general study of the properties of the model, we show an application to the particular case of acoustic communication among Mongolian gazelles, for which data are available, searching for good habitat areas. Using Monte Carlo simulations and density equations, our results point out that the search is optimal (i.e., the mean first hitting time among searchers is minimum) at intermediate scales of communication, showing that both an excess and a lack of information may worsen it.
authors.affiliation: IFISC, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (CSIC-UIB), E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-García
authors.affiliation: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, USA.
authors.forename: Justin M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Calabrese
authors.affiliation: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, USA and Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, USA.
authors.forename: Kirk A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: IFISC, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (CSIC-UIB), E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristóbal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D000866:Antelopes / Q000502:physiology*; D003142:Communication; D008962:Models, Theoretical