1.2) Schooling And Flocking: Recent Developments

Out of these early insights in the 1980s a cornucopia of fancy models, papers, grants emerged. Most of the animated flocks we see nowadays in movies are based on these simple rules. More recent findings are:

Ballerini et al. 2009: Response to predators in starling flock movements is reproduced best if model assumes each individual interacts with 6-7 nearest neighbours.

Hildenbrandt, Carere, & Hemelrijk (2010): Simulated starling flocks can be even more realistic if they include simplified aerodynamics and attraction to roosting sites.

But what have we learned? (other than: follow your neighbor and stay together)

Modelers developed a body of theory explaining how these phenomena emerge. Starting with looking like a fish school (Aoki 1982) and avoiding collision (Reynolds 1987) to represent polarization with realistic nearest-neighbour distance (Huth and Wissel 1992) and appropriate flock shapes with response to predators (Ballerini et al. 2009; Hildenbrand et al. 2010).