Onboard Sensors Reveal New Insights into Animal Decision-Making

Abstract

The continuous process of decision-making in animals is crucial for their survival. For example, when deciding when, where, and with whom to forage, they need to consider their internal state, previous experience, and social information in addition to external factors such as food distribution and weather conditions. Studying animal decision-making in the wild is a complicated task due to the complexity of the process, which requires continuous monitoring of the examined individual and its environment. Here, we review the most advanced methods to examine decision-making from an individual point of view, namely tracking technologies to monitor the movement of an individual, the sensory information available to it, the presence and behavior of other animals around it, and its surrounding environment. We provide examples for studying decision-making during competition, examining the ontogeny of decision-making, and describing the importance of long-term monitoring and field manipulation for understanding decision processes throughout different life stages.