What is Collective animal behaviour?
[[File:Sort sol pdfnet.jpg|right|thumb|270px|Starling flock at sunset in [[Denmark]]]] [[File:School of Pterocaesio chrysozona in Papua New Guinea 1.jpg|thumb|270px|[[Shoaling and schooling|Shoal]] of [[goldband fusilier]]s]] '''Collective animal behaviour''' describes and analyzes the [[behaviour]] of groups of [[animal]]s. In these groups, the animals are often all of the same [[species]]. As an example, a school of [[fish]] will be made of mostly the same type of fish and a flock of [[bird]]s will have the same type of bird. A [[herd]] is a large group of [[hoof]]ed, [[herbivorous]] [[mammal]]s. Animals tend to behave in such a way because this behaviour offers them a benefit. The group of animals also behaves differently from a single animal. Collective animal behaviour is about finding the rules each animal follows; how it communicates with other members of the group and how a decision to do something is reached in the group. == Scope of the term == Full-time [[Colony (biology)|colonial]] animals fall into this category in principle, but in practice the species of interest here are those who form temporary groups. Colonial animals have been researched for many years, and are usually based on some kind of family relationship. Temporary collective behavior is a well-known [[phenomenon]], but little researched until now. ==Different functions== Different functions have been proposed, as follows: 1. ''Protection from predators''. :1.1 A school of fish is better protected from predation than a single fish: see [[shoaling and schooling]]. One method by which fish schools or bird flocks may thwart [[predator]]s is the ‘predator confusion effect’.<ref>Milinski H. and Heller R. 1978. Influence of a predator on the optimal foraging behavior of sticklebacks. ''Nature'' '''275''', pp642-644.</ref> This theory is based on the idea that it becomes difficult for predators to pick out individuals from groups, because the moving targets create a sensory overload of the predator's visual channel. :1.2 A second potential