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Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks

Bird flocks under predation demonstrate complex patterns of collective escape. These patterns may emerge by self-organization from local interactions among group-members. Computational models have been shown to be valuable for identifying what behavioral rules may govern such interactions among indi...

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Autores principales: Papadopoulou, Marina, Hildenbrandt, Hanno, Sankey, Daniel W. E., Portugal, Steven J., Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8782486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35007287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009772
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author Papadopoulou, Marina
Hildenbrandt, Hanno
Sankey, Daniel W. E.
Portugal, Steven J.
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
author_facet Papadopoulou, Marina
Hildenbrandt, Hanno
Sankey, Daniel W. E.
Portugal, Steven J.
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
author_sort Papadopoulou, Marina
collection PubMed
description Bird flocks under predation demonstrate complex patterns of collective escape. These patterns may emerge by self-organization from local interactions among group-members. Computational models have been shown to be valuable for identifying what behavioral rules may govern such interactions among individuals during collective motion. However, our knowledge of such rules for collective escape is limited by the lack of quantitative data on bird flocks under predation in the field. In the present study, we analyze the first GPS trajectories of pigeons in airborne flocks attacked by a robotic falcon in order to build a species-specific model of collective escape. We use our model to examine a recently identified distance-dependent pattern of collective behavior: the closer the prey is to the predator, the higher the frequency with which flock members turn away from it. We first extract from the empirical data of pigeon flocks the characteristics of their shape and internal structure (bearing angle and distance to nearest neighbors). Combining these with information on their coordination from the literature, we build an agent-based model adjusted to pigeons’ collective escape. We show that the pattern of turning away from the predator with increased frequency when the predator is closer arises without prey prioritizing escape when the predator is near. Instead, it emerges through self-organization from a behavioral rule to avoid the predator independently of their distance to it. During this self-organization process, we show how flock members increase their consensus over which direction to escape and turn collectively as the predator gets closer. Our results suggest that coordination among flock members, combined with simple escape rules, reduces the cognitive costs of tracking the predator while flocking. Such escape rules that are independent of the distance to the predator can now be investigated in other species. Our study showcases the important role of computational models in the interpretation of empirical findings of collective behavior.
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spelling pubmed-87824862022-01-22 Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks Papadopoulou, Marina Hildenbrandt, Hanno Sankey, Daniel W. E. Portugal, Steven J. Hemelrijk, Charlotte K. PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Bird flocks under predation demonstrate complex patterns of collective escape. These patterns may emerge by self-organization from local interactions among group-members. Computational models have been shown to be valuable for identifying what behavioral rules may govern such interactions among individuals during collective motion. However, our knowledge of such rules for collective escape is limited by the lack of quantitative data on bird flocks under predation in the field. In the present study, we analyze the first GPS trajectories of pigeons in airborne flocks attacked by a robotic falcon in order to build a species-specific model of collective escape. We use our model to examine a recently identified distance-dependent pattern of collective behavior: the closer the prey is to the predator, the higher the frequency with which flock members turn away from it. We first extract from the empirical data of pigeon flocks the characteristics of their shape and internal structure (bearing angle and distance to nearest neighbors). Combining these with information on their coordination from the literature, we build an agent-based model adjusted to pigeons’ collective escape. We show that the pattern of turning away from the predator with increased frequency when the predator is closer arises without prey prioritizing escape when the predator is near. Instead, it emerges through self-organization from a behavioral rule to avoid the predator independently of their distance to it. During this self-organization process, we show how flock members increase their consensus over which direction to escape and turn collectively as the predator gets closer. Our results suggest that coordination among flock members, combined with simple escape rules, reduces the cognitive costs of tracking the predator while flocking. Such escape rules that are independent of the distance to the predator can now be investigated in other species. Our study showcases the important role of computational models in the interpretation of empirical findings of collective behavior. Public Library of Science 2022-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8782486/ /pubmed/35007287 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009772 Text en © 2022 Papadopoulou et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Papadopoulou, Marina
Hildenbrandt, Hanno
Sankey, Daniel W. E.
Portugal, Steven J.
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title_full Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title_fullStr Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title_full_unstemmed Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title_short Self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
title_sort self-organization of collective escape in pigeon flocks
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8782486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35007287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009772
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