How do gnats/flies synchronize when they swarm? I notice how they all move up and down at the same exact time. Yes, they are flying around randomly too, but every once in a while, they all move up and then down at the same time. How do they know?
In: Biology
That’s actually a very interesting phenomenon. It’s not just gnats – other insects (locusts!), birds (starlings!), fish (mackerel), and tiny and large mammals (bats, buffalo) all exhibit the same talent for remarkably synchronized movements.
All of these animals have evolved some simple instinctual rules for swarming/stampeding behavior. If you see your immediate neighbor shift their movement like *this*, you react like *that*. Biologists and animal behavior scientists have even successfully reproduced large swarm behaviors in simulated populations using what they imagine the simple behavior rules might be. I mean, they can’t really know the rules, but they can guess and test, and that seems to reinforce the idea that that’s how it works.
Latest Answers