Spatio-temporal structure of hooded gull flocks.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 24339960.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0081754 and PMC identifier PMC2442850.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
We analyzed the spatio-temporal structure of hooded gull flocks with a portable stereo camera system. The 3-dimensional positions of individuals were reconstructed from pairs of videos. The motions of each individual were analyzed, and both gliding and flapping motions were quantified based on the velocity time series. We analyzed the distributions of the nearest neighbor's position in terms of coordinates based on each individual's motion. The obtained results were consistent with the aerodynamic interaction between individuals. We characterized the leader-follower relationship between individuals by a delay time to mimic the direction of a motion. A relation between the delay time and a relative position was analyzed quantitatively, which suggested the basic properties of the formation flight that maintains order in the flock.