Non-linear Dynamics Commons^™

Bistability And Switching Behavior In Moving Animal Groups, Daniel Strömbom, Stephanie Nickerson, Catherine Futterman, Alyssa Difazio, Cameron Costello, Kolbjørn Tunstrøm

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Moving animal groups such as schools of fish and flocks of birds frequently switch between different group structures. Standard models of collective motion have been used successfully to explain how stable groups form via local interactions between individuals, but they are typically unable to produce groups that exhibit spontaneous switching. We are only aware of one model, constructed for barred flagtail fish that are known to rely on alignment and attraction to organize their collective motion, that has been shown to generate this type of behavior in 2D (or 3D). Interestingly, another species of fish, golden shiners, do exhibit switching …