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Living in groups: Spatial-moment dynamics with neighbour-biased movements

Author

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  • Binny, Rachelle N.
  • Law, Richard
  • Plank, Michael J.

Abstract

Herd formation in animal populations, for example to escape a predator or coordinate feeding, is a widespread phenomenon. Understanding which interactions between individual animals are important for generating such emergent self-organisation has been a key focus of ecological and mathematical research. Here we show the relationship between the algorithmic rules of herd-forming agents, and the mathematical structure of the corresponding spatial-moment dynamics. This entails scaling up from the rules of individual, herd-generating behaviour to the macroscopic dynamics of herd structure. The model employs a mechanism for neighbour-dependent, directionally-biased movement to explore how individual interactions generate aggregation and repulsion in groups of animals. Our results show that a combination of mutually attractive and repulsive interactions with different spatial scales is sufficient to lead to the stable formation of groups with a characteristic size.

Suggested Citation

  • Binny, Rachelle N. & Law, Richard & Plank, Michael J., 2020. "Living in groups: Spatial-moment dynamics with neighbour-biased movements," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 415(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:415:y:2020:i:c:s0304380019303333
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108825
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