Department of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, 741246, West Bengal, India.
Sci Rep. 2020 May 20;10(1):8362. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-64084-3.
A swarm of prey, when attacked by a predator, is known to rely on their cooperative interactions to escape. Understanding such interactions of collectively moving prey and the emerging patterns of their escape trajectories still remain elusive. In this paper, we investigate how the range of cooperative interactions within a prey group affects the survival chances of the group while chased by a predator. As observed in nature, the interaction range of prey may vary due to their vision, age, or even physical structure. Based on a simple theoretical prey-predator model, here, we show that an optimality criterion for survival can be established on the interaction range of prey. Very short-range or long-range interactions are shown to be inefficient for the escape mechanism. Interestingly, for an intermediate range of interaction, the survival probability of the prey group is found to be maximum. Our analysis also shows that the nature of the escape trajectories strongly depends on the range of interactions between prey and corroborates with the naturally observed escape patterns. Moreover, we find that the optimal survival interaction regime varies depending on the prey group size and also on the strength of the predator and the prey interactions.
当猎物群受到捕食者的攻击时，众所周知，它们会依靠合作互动来逃脱。然而，理解集体移动的猎物的相互作用以及它们逃离轨迹的新兴模式仍然难以捉摸。在本文中，我们研究了猎物群体内部的合作互动范围如何影响猎物群体在被捕食者追逐时的生存机会。正如在自然界中观察到的那样，由于猎物的视力、年龄甚至身体结构的不同，其相互作用范围可能会有所不同。基于一个简单的猎物-捕食者理论模型，我们在这里表明，可以在猎物的相互作用范围上建立一个生存的最优准则。研究表明，非常短程或长程的相互作用对于逃脱机制效率低下。有趣的是，对于中间范围的相互作用，猎物群体的生存概率被发现是最大的。我们的分析还表明，逃离轨迹的性质强烈依赖于猎物之间的相互作用范围，并与自然观察到的逃离模式相吻合。此外，我们发现，最优的生存相互作用模式取决于猎物群体的大小，以及捕食者和猎物之间的相互作用的强度。
