A new research suggests that the Athenians weren't necessarily the first democratizers. It also stated that baboons rely on majority rule, not elders, to dictate daily movements.

Researchers hope the study's findings published in the journal Science could help to shed some light on the evolution of group's decisions-making in a variety of social animals having in hierarchical structures.

Researchers since long have wondered how animals that live in complex social groups make collective decisions. For example, they thought do certain members take the lead or not? How does a group decide what to do hen two or more parties don't agree?

Experts said animals like baboon were good case studies because they are complex individuals living n social hierarchies, and they stick together when they travel. Coauthor Margaret Crofoot, an anthropologist at UC Davis said in a statement that it is exceedingly difficult to track this unique form of decision-making in the wild.

Crofoot in an explanation said that when one is out in forest for observation research, one is not able to simultaneously collect data on all individuals in a social group at the same time.

"And so you're limited in your ability to understand how these sorts of collective behaviors, these group behaviors, come about -- because you can only watch one animal at a time", said Crofoot.

Scientists in order to get the collective dynamics went to Kenya to set traps for a troop of about 30 wild olive baboons near the trees in which they slept along the river. They fitted 25 baboons with GPS-monitoring collars and released them so they could watch how the animals in the group.

Researchers through collars found that the baboons decided which leader to follow based on two main criteria the first is how widely the two leaders diverged and secondly, how many others agreed with them.

Scientists said the study's findings can help them further understand patterns in the group behaviors of many different species starting from schooling fish to cooperation in human societies.