Animals that vote— solving group conflicts
What can we learn from the animal world about solving differences of opinion?
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CONFLICT IN ANY SPECIES can arise when there is a real or perceived unfairness or inequality. How do animals—and other mammals in particular—handle potential conflict?
Disagreements are a normal part of life, not just for humans, but for many other species. How other species manage to resolve disagreements can be helpful for humans to understand, generating insight into other species and helping our own species see other options for fostering coordination and cohesion.
The following examples come from biomimicry.org, which asks how nature does something well so humans can learn from it. To read more about the fascinating field of biomimicry, read an earlier Mother E article, Copying the Genius Around Us.
Recent animal studies have uncovered adaptive behavior that limits animal conflict and promotes well-being. The studies here are from animals on the African continent, but they most likely mirror group animal behavior in North America and elsewhere.
As tensions mount in the U.S. and a fierce war still rages in Ukraine, we should examine how other species solve their differences without war or ongoing fighting.
First, let’s look at those furry bundles of cuteness called meerkats. On any golden sunrise in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, a group of meerkats will emerge from their burrow to start foraging for food: beetles, scorpions, and spiders. They’re omnivorous, so they’ll also eat small reptiles, fruits, and eggs.
They are a sociable pack (groups are called “mobs”) that forage together daily. But within that group are individuals with different needs. Lactating females and fast-growing juveniles need more food, and older adults need less. The individuals may have different food preferences or varying knowledge about the location of food sources.
How do they resolve possible conflicts over where the group spends their day?
It’s the first meerkat to head off in a direction that gets followed, as that one shows initiative or eagerness to get to a known food source. Is it usually a dominant member of the pack? Surprisingly, no.
What the experimenters discovered is that, when two different meerkats in a group know about food sources in different directions, the group still doesn’t split up. Instead, the group follows the first meerkat that heads off in a certain direction. It doesn’t matter if that meerkat is a dominant or subordinate individual. If they head off first, that’s where the group follows.
Any animal can lead, and the morning’s “captain of the food hunt” rotates between members of the pack. This leads to a greater sense of group fairness and equality. Every meerkat gets a chance to choose their preferred food source and steer the group if they choose. But they have all agreed on one thing to preserve this peaceful coexistence— follow that first eager meerkat who scampers out into the sandy savannah.
What can meerkats teach us? Species that spend time in groups (think households, schools, towns, cities, nations) must agree upon “rules” to limit unnecessary conflict. Also, a sense of fairness and equality comes from finding ways to give everyone input and even share leadership responsibilities.
Animals that vote
Animals that live in groups have evolved to make decisions that promote unity and social cohesion. Sometimes that involves a form of voting.
African wild dogs hunt together as a pack. When the group has been resting and might be ready to start foraging again, the decision to go or stay is voted on by a special “word” sound started by one wild dog. Agreement happens when enough other wild dogs make the same sound. If they don’t agree, the pack stays put longer.
African wild dogs decide whether to stay or go by voting. They don’t vote by casting a ballot or raising a hand (paw?), but instead vote using a sound, an abrupt exhale, a little like a sneeze. How many votes it takes to decide to go depends on who starts the sneezing. If a dominant individual sneezes first, then it only takes a few more sneezes by the rest of the dogs for the group to rally and go. If a different (non-dominant) individual sneezes first, the group can still decide to go, but it takes many more sneezes by other group members to make this happen.
https://asknature.org/strategy/african-wild-dogs-use-versatile-voting-system/
For more African wild dog stories, see an earlier Mother E, Painted Dog Stories 45 Years Apart.
Shifting over to the primate world, group cooperation and conflict reduction can spell the difference between survival or not.
Macaque monkeys live in many areas globally, from Asia to Northern Africa. Researchers studied macaques living in the forests of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They discovered that even large bands of 30 monkeys could move without conflict between different food-producing regions. How do they do this?
They use a voting system similar to the Iowa caucus, where voters move to the group they want to align with.
When a macaque would like to move on to another fruit patch, it signals this to the rest of the troop by stepping towards the direction it would like to go, stopping, and then turning to look back at the rest of the troop. This begins the voting process. At this point, another macaque may move in a different direction, effectively proposing the troop travel towards a different fruit patch. Additional monkeys then join one or the other initiators, casting their vote for one direction or another based on preference and their relationships with the other monkeys in each group.
Once a voting monkey stops looking back at the rest of the troop, the voting process is effectively over. The remaining monkeys simply join whichever group is largest. The monkeys that voted for the unchosen route then join the rest of the troop, in order to all stay together.
https://asknature.org/strategy/macaques-use-simple-voting-process-to-stay-together/
There is both simplicity and sophistication in these instinctual systems of animal voting. Every group member has a chance to express their opinion and lead, yet ultimately they honor the group’s majority preference in a quick decision-making process. This preserves the advantages and strengths of group cohesiveness.
Group tension or togetherness?
To live in an animal group but quarrel with the group’s majority decision-making would create tension and stress, and lose precious time for foraging, eating, resting, and other necessary activities. Group tension diminishes the health and well-being of all the individuals in that group.
Our human societies also suffer when there is widespread disagreement, conflict, or war. Most people, like the animals mentioned above, want a life that’s both peaceful and fair, and we can see examples of civilizations that embodied that throughout human history.
Can our self-aware species now self-correct to find a more permanent path to peace, equality, and living in planetary balance? If wild dogs and macaque monkeys can do it, we can too.
It’s all possible when we realize we have more in common with others than differences and that we even share some of the same values and goals as our fellow wild creatures.
We may be the most developed species on the planet in terms of technology, self-awareness, and cognitive ability, but the animal kingdom has managed to maintain something that we lost long ago – an instinctual understanding that peace is better than war.
John Staughton, https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/animals/do-animals-have-wars-like-humans-do.html
Robin Applegarth
I like to hear from readers! What’s one step we can take to use conflict-resolution strategies from wild animal groups?
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Interesting and apropos today's political climate/temperature.
Thank you
Excellent! Sharing!