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Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks
Animal groups have emergent properties that result from simple interactions among individuals. However, we know little about why animals adopt different interaction rules because of sparse sampling among species. Here, we identify an interaction rule that holds across single and mixed-species flocks...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31162047 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45071 |
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author | Corcoran, Aaron J Hedrick, Tyson L |
author_facet | Corcoran, Aaron J Hedrick, Tyson L |
author_sort | Corcoran, Aaron J |
collection | PubMed |
description | Animal groups have emergent properties that result from simple interactions among individuals. However, we know little about why animals adopt different interaction rules because of sparse sampling among species. Here, we identify an interaction rule that holds across single and mixed-species flocks of four migratory shorebird species spanning a seven-fold range of body masses. The rule, aligning with a one-wingspan lateral distance to nearest neighbors in the same horizontal plane, scales linearly with wingspan but is independent of nearest neighbor distance and neighbor species. This rule propagates outward to create a global flock structure that we term the compound-V formation. We propose that this formation represents an intermediary between the cluster flocks of starlings and the simple-V formations of geese and other large migratory birds. We explore multiple hypotheses regarding the benefit of this flock structure and how it differs from structures observed in other flocking species. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6548498 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65484982019-06-12 Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks Corcoran, Aaron J Hedrick, Tyson L eLife Evolutionary Biology Animal groups have emergent properties that result from simple interactions among individuals. However, we know little about why animals adopt different interaction rules because of sparse sampling among species. Here, we identify an interaction rule that holds across single and mixed-species flocks of four migratory shorebird species spanning a seven-fold range of body masses. The rule, aligning with a one-wingspan lateral distance to nearest neighbors in the same horizontal plane, scales linearly with wingspan but is independent of nearest neighbor distance and neighbor species. This rule propagates outward to create a global flock structure that we term the compound-V formation. We propose that this formation represents an intermediary between the cluster flocks of starlings and the simple-V formations of geese and other large migratory birds. We explore multiple hypotheses regarding the benefit of this flock structure and how it differs from structures observed in other flocking species. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2019-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6548498/ /pubmed/31162047 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45071 Text en © 2019, Corcoran and Hedrick http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolutionary Biology Corcoran, Aaron J Hedrick, Tyson L Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title | Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title_full | Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title_fullStr | Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title_full_unstemmed | Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title_short | Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks |
title_sort | compound-v formations in shorebird flocks |
topic | Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31162047 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45071 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT corcoranaaronj compoundvformationsinshorebirdflocks AT hedricktysonl compoundvformationsinshorebirdflocks |