It seems logical: animals should dash to the center of their herd to avoid an attacking predator. But a recent modeling study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that this strategy, the foundation of the Selfish Herd Hypothesis, could actually backfire. That's because individuals struggling to get to the middle have to dodge and weave through the crowd to keep evading the predator. Often they eventually end up at the back of the pack, where they're easy pickings.
First proposed by British naturalist William Hamilton in 1971, the notion that animals are better protected by heading for the middle of the group has been textbook for decades, says article author Daniel Sankey. And yet, Sankey's models actually show that the individuals heading for the middle are often less protected compared with those who have other escape strategies.
Sankey, a behavioral ecologist and postdoc at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus in Cornwall, UK, began thinking about selfish herds while studying flocks of pigeons in 2021. [...]
Sankey was intrigued. Could other behaviors be, at times, more advantageous than moving to the middle? In this latest study, he modeled both selfish behavior and an alternative behavior. [...]
When challenged by a predator, the birds aligning with their neighbors had much better luck escaping the predator. The selfish middle-seeking birds, meanwhile, "end up at the back," Sankey explains.
[...] Based on these latest modeling findings, Sankey would expect the selfish herding behavior to be rare in nature. Most wild animals in fact don't demonstrate it. "You don't see gazelles running from a lion all huddling in a group," he says. [...]
Behavioral ecologist Ambika Kamath at the University of Colorado Boulder says that the field of behavioral ecology is "sorely in need of research that interrogates the foundational assumptions of longstanding theories," and she calls this work a "straightforward and elegant" example of how to do so.
Journal Reference:
Sankey Daniel W. E. 2022 'Selfish herders' finish last in mobile animal groups Proc. R. Soc. B. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1653
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:55AM
Just like I've always said.
Run quick. Die slow.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:39AM (1 child)
Remember, you don't have to be faster than the lion, you only have to be faster than at least one other herd member. Works for zebras running from lions, works for servers trying to stay unhacked, works for employees wanting to keep their job. You don't have to be the best. Just be better than another potential victim.
Don't waste your resources on being the best. Use them wisely to be good enough.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday November 16 2022, @11:33PM
That may be how herd behavior works in humans, but its not how it works for zebras. Lions don't have much endurance. So, if the zebras can get the lion to switch targets at a point when both the lion and the original target are tired, the original target can get away and the lion will be too tired to catch the new target.