Modeling the Searching Behavior of Social Monkeys.pdfVIP

Modeling the Searching Behavior of Social 3 Monkeys 0 0 2 v o D. Boyer a,∗, O. Miramontes a , G. Ramos-Fern´andez b , N a a J.L. Mateos , G. Cocho 1 1 a Departamento de Sistemas Complejos, Instituto de F´ısica, Universidad Nacional ] Aut´onoma de M´exico, Apartado Postal 20-364, 01000 M´exico D.F., M´exico n n b Pronatura Pen´ınsula de Yucat´an, Calle 17 # 188A x 10, Col, Garc´ıa Giner´es, - s M´erida, 97070 Yucat´an, M´exico i d . t a m Abstract - d n We discuss various features of the trajectories of spider monkeys looking for food o in a tropical forest, as observed recently in an extensive in situ study. Some of c [ the features observed can be interpreted as the result of social interactions. In addition, a simple model of deterministic walk in a random environment reproduces 1 v the observed angular correlations between successive steps, and in some cases, the 2 emergence of L´evy distributions for the length of the steps. 5 2 1 Key words: Biological physics, Foraging, Random walks 1 3 PACS: 87.23.-n, 05.40.Fb 0 / t a m - d n 1 Introduction o c : v i It is often hypothesized that animals live in groups because they benefit from X predator avoidance and collective food searching [1]. However, group living r a also imposes behavioral restrictions on individuals and may, on the other hand, facilitate the emergence of entirely new