Birds of Different Feathers
Author: COMAP
Background
Prey animals often collect into groups and move together. The resulting groups may contain one species of animal or may include multiple species. Different reasons for why animals form such groups have been proposed including increased efficiency in foraging, better detection of predators, and other advantages. We will focus on the detection of predators in groups with multiple species[1].
One proposal for why animals collect in large groups is that different species might be able to better detect the presence of predators due to the variation in their behaviours. Is it possible to provide evidence that this is the case? You are asked to develop a mathematical model of how the animals in a group composed of different species interacts and observe their environment.
If a group is composed of different species are they more likely to detect the presence of a predator? If so, what is the importance of the number of different species? Is there a minimum number of species for there to be a non-trivial advantage? Is there an upper bound for the number of species in which additional types of animals have a smaller impact?
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