Consistency of animal order in spontaneous group movements allows the measurement of leadership in a group of grazing heifers

By B. Dumont, Alain Boissy, C. Achard, A. Sibbald, H. Erhard. 2005

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Personality differences explain leadership in barnacle geese (2009, background): “Certain individuals are observed to be consistently at the forefront of collective movements and these individuals have been described as ‘leaders’ (Beauchamp 2000; Dumont et al. 2005; Harcourt et al. 2009).”
Graded leadership by dominant animals in a herd of female beef cattle on pasture (2010, background): “Coordinated group movements can arise either because all or most animals follow one or a few ‘leaders’ (Sato 1982; Dumont et al. 2005) or as emergent properties from simple rules of thumb that govern the behaviour of individual animals, without any leadership by a specific individual.”
Social relationships and reproductive state influence leadership roles in movements of plains zebra, Equus burchellii (2007, unknown): “We considered individuals closest to the front as leaders in initiating a move (Dumont et al. 2005).”
Organization of Group Members at Departure Is Driven by Social Structure in Macaca (2008, methodology): “The first individual was the initiator, which is the same criterion as the one Leca et al. (2003) used and fits with the definition of Dumont et al. (2005).”
Allelomimetic synchronization in Merino sheep (2007, unknown): “R E C some species one or two individuals in a group can act as leaders, for example chicks (Roden & Wechsler 1998), heifers (Dumont et al. 2005) and gorillas (Watts 2000; Conradt & Roper 2005).”