Getting It Together

The collective motion of many groups of animals can be stunning.
Flocks of birds and schools of fish are able to remain cohesive,
find food, and avoid predators without leaders and without
awareness of all but a few other members in their groups. Research
using vector analysis and statistics has led to the discovery of
simple principles, such as members maintaining a minimum distance
between neighbors while still aligning with them, which help
explain shapes such as the one below. Although collective motion by
groups of animals is often beautiful, it can be costly as well:
Destructive locusts affect ten percent of the world.s population.
Many other animals exhibit group dynamics; some organisms involved
are small while their groups are huge, so researchers. models have
to account for distances on vastly different scales. The resulting
equations then must be solved numerically, because of the
incredible number of animals represented. Conclusions from this
research will help manage destructive insects, such as locusts, as
well as help speed the movement of people.ants rarely get stuck in
traffic. Photo by Jose Luis Gomez de Francisco. For More
Information: Swarm Theory, Peter Miller. National Geographic, July
2007.