Collective anti-predator escape manoeuvres through optimal attack and avoidance strategies.

ABSTRACT: The collective dynamics of self-organised systems emerge from the decision rules agents use to respond to each other and to external forces. This is evident in groups of animals under attack from predators, where understanding collective escape patterns requires evaluating the risks and rewards associated with particular social rules, prey escape behaviour, and predator attack strategies. Here, we find that the emergence of the 'fountain effect', a common collective pattern observed when animal groups evade predators, is the outcome of rules designed to maximise individual survival chances given predator hunting decisions. Using drone-based empirical observations of schooling sardine prey (Sardinops sagax caerulea) attacked by striped marlin (Kajikia audax), we first find the majority of a

SUBMITTER: Bartashevich P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11603345 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature