Plains zebra 2019 multimodal communication dataset

Multimodality is a virtually ubiquitous feature of communication. With the
increasing interest in how animals, including humans, use multimodal and
multicomponent signals in social interactions, there is an acute need for
standardized and rigorous tools that will allow us to visualize, and
analyze these signals as they occur in naturalistic interactions as a
complex, integrated system. Network theory is a powerful methodology for
intuitively visualizing and investigating the relationships between
entities. Here, we propose a new application of network theory for
analyzing multimodal communication. Using a case study of natural
multimodal interactions in wild plains zebras (Equus quagga), we introduce
the descriptive power of network metrics by providing an objective set of
metrics to: (a) describe the relationships between simultaneously produced
signals within and between modalities; and (b) infer signal meaning and
function. Here we make available the multimodal communication data
collected during our 2019 field season.