Behavioral Strategizing Among Animals: A Systems Approach

Examples of behavioral strategizing exist throughout the animal kingdom, but the quantification and analysis of these complex behavioral patterns remain a challenge. Classic research in this realm often relies either on methods that intentionally simplify complexity or that focus on a subset of abundant behaviors. Unfortunately, these approaches can sometimes eliminate informative details of behavioral strategizing. Here, we demonstrate the utility of a systems-based approach to characterize behavioral patterns in a way that captures the complexity of behavioral strategies and tactics while supporting the generation of relevant, system-specific hypotheses. We accomplish this aim by building upon classic ideas of strategy and tactic, refocusing the theory on behavioral traits, and extending the framework to make sense of patterns of behavior use. In doing so, we outline a more expansive definition of the behavioral tactic, and we provide a methodological roadmap for quantifying multi-behavior and multi-agent tactics. Our goal is to craft a framework for the study of behavioral patterns and encourage researchers to embrace the complexity in their systems. To this end, we provide a case study of territoriality in downy woodpeckers as proof of concept for a network-based systems approach to understanding behavioral strategies.