Presentation Details
| Group Dynamics of V-shaped Geese Flocks Louis von Leitner1, 2. 1Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower-Saxony, Germany.2Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan |
Abstract
V-shaped flock formations are observed across many species of migrating birds. Research suggests that birds take advantage of vortices and other upwinds created by front neighbors to increase efficiency. This research analyzes positional data in airborne flocks of white-fronted geese, captured with cameras and extracted with computer vision techniques. For the analysis, we create and suggest a novel metric to measure disorder in V-shaped bird flocks. Data analysis with this and other common metrics finds strong positive correlation between flock size and disorder. To understand why, we analyze relations between goose movement and flock size, position in the flock, as well as front neighbor's movements, using various machine learning techniques. We find that geese statistically behave similarly in flocks of all sizes and all positions within a flock. More specifically, the results suggest that geese take flight decisions based on the next four front neighbors and have a reaction time to that movement of about one wing flap iteration. These results allow for comparisons with group dynamics in other animals and applications in technology, such as speed control systems in cars.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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