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Collective Animal Behaviour

My Ph.D. research is about probing the underlying mechanisms by which swarming animals are able to acheive the incredible feats of organisation such as bird flocks, fish shoals and insect swarms.

I have devised a new model for how birds are able to form massive bird flocks without a huge breakdown in order, click the link below to see it in action. I have also travelled around the UK to collect data on large starling flocks in the wild, in order to verify the predictions made by my model.

Large flock of starlings over the burnt pier at Brighton, England.

Interactive Simulation Website

Use this to see the hybrid projection model in action. You can vary the weightings of the model and the shape of the individuals. By varying these few factors it is possible to see a wide variety of behavioural phenotypes.