Individual leadership in cattle persists when collective movement is induced by robotic herding
- 1University of Miyazaki
Abstract
In social species, some individuals consistently lead collective movements while others follow, but whether these roles persist when movement is externally induced remains unknown. Robotic herding offers a way to address this: animals are displaced by an approaching device, yet retain the option to stay, to move or to follow a conspecific that has moved. We recorded spontaneous group departures in a herd of 18 Japanese Black cows on three days, then recorded which individuals initiated movement away from a quadruped robot, which followed and which remained, across an eight-day herding trial. Cows that frequently initiated spontaneous departures and attracted followers also initiated movement away from the robot more often and drew more followers, whereas habitual followers tended to be less effective initiators. Follower frequency during herding was unrelated to any characteristic measured. Individual leadership therefore persists when movement is induced by a robot. Behavioural roles may thus be expressed under moderate external constraint, provided animals retain some freedom of choice. Identifying leaders from spontaneous departures offers a practical route to more efficient robotic herding.
Related
- Inter-Individual Variability in Cycling Biomechanics During Experimentally Induced Movement-Evoked Knee Pain
- Individual variation in the accuracy of saccades to sounds is correlated with the properties of eye movement-related eardrum oscillations (EMREOs)
- Solitary movement style predicts collective foraging while whom to follow emerges only in company
- Phenological tracking of migratory waterfowl to spring green-up derived from individual movement.
- Surface Functionalization Modulates Collective Cell Behavior Near Topological Defects Induced by Topographical Patterning
BibTeX
@misc{anzai2026individual,
title = {{Individual leadership in cattle persists when collective movement is induced by robotic herding}},
author = {H. Anzai and H. Miyagi and K. Tamura and K. Iwatani and S. Miyamoto},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.14.759049},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759049v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Individual leadership in cattle persists when collective movement is induced by robotic herding
AU - H. Anzai
AU - H. Miyagi
AU - K. Tamura
AU - K. Iwatani
AU - S. Miyamoto
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.14.759049
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759049v1
AB - In social species, some individuals consistently lead collective movements while others follow, but whether these roles persist when movement is externally induced remains unknown. Robotic herding offers a way to address this: animals are displaced by an approaching device, yet retain the option to stay, to move or to follow a conspecific that has moved. We recorded spontaneous group departures in a herd of 18 Japanese Black cows on three days, then recorded which individuals initiated movement away from a quadruped robot, which followed and which remained, across an eight-day herding trial. Cows that frequently initiated spontaneous departures and attracted followers also initiated movement away from the robot more often and drew more followers, whereas habitual followers tended to be less effective initiators. Follower frequency during herding was unrelated to any characteristic measured. Individual leadership therefore persists when movement is induced by a robot. Behavioural roles may thus be expressed under moderate external constraint, provided animals retain some freedom of choice. Identifying leaders from spontaneous departures offers a practical route to more efficient robotic herding.
ER -