Larger groups often have a greater ability to solve cognitive tasks compared to smaller ones
or lone individuals. This is well established in social insects, navigating flocks of birds, and …

Social transmission of information is vital for many group-living animals, allowing
coordination of motion and effective response to complex environments. Revealing the …

Predation is thought to shape the macroscopic properties of animal groups, making moving
groups more cohesive and coordinated. Precisely how predation has shaped individuals' …

A variety of simple models has been proposed to understand the collective motion of
animals. These models can be insightful but may lack important elements necessary to …

The exceptional reactivity of animal collectives to predatory attacks is thought to be owing to
rapid, but local, transfer of information between group members. These groups turn together …

Schools of fish and flocks of birds can move together in synchrony and decide on new
directions of movement in a seamless way. This is possible because group members …

Leadership is widespread across the animal kingdom. In self-organizing groups, such as
fish schools, theoretical models predict that effective leaders need to balance goal-oriented …

According to the criticality hypothesis, collective biological systems should operate in a
special parameter region, close to so-called critical points, where the collective behavior …

Coordinated motion and collective decision-making in fish schools result from complex
interactions by which individuals integrate information about the behavior of their neighbors …

Collective movement is critical to the survival of some animals. Despite substantial progress
in understanding animal collectives such as fish shoals and bird flocks, it is unknown how …