Velocity correlations in jackdaw flocks in different ecological contexts

Abstract

Velocity correlation is an important feature for animal groups performing collective motions. Previous studies have mostly focused on the velocity correlation in a single ecological context. It is unclear whether correlation characteristics vary in a single species in different contexts. Here, we studied the velocity correlations in jackdaw flocks in two different contexts: transit flocks where birds travel from one location to another, and mobbing flocks where birds respond to an external stimulus. We found that in both contexts, although the interaction rules are different, the velocity correlations remain scale-free, i.e. the correlation length (the distance over which the velocity of two individuals is similar) increases linearly with the group size. Furthermore, we found that the correlation length is independent of the group density for transit flocks, but increases with increasing group density in mobbing flocks. This result confirms a previous observation that birds obey topological interactions in transit flocks, but switch to metric interactions in mobbing flocks. Finally, in both contexts, the impact of group polarization on correlation length is not significant. Our results suggest that wild animals are always able to respond coherently to perturbations regardless of context.