Hi Wesley, you wrote: > I'd actually expect the opposite: something that's called a "selfish herd" > effect, where the larger the group, the less likely that you'll be depredated > because by chance alone you're far less likely to be killed by the small > number of predators in the area if you're in a group of 100 than if you're in > a group of 2, for example.
Maybe, but selfish herd payoff calculations have to take account of the costs of the behavior too: increased intra-specific competition, marginalization of the weak, and the much greater conspicuousness of large aggregations to predators. I definitely take your point about finite and depletable winter food supplies enforcing more-or-less continuous exploration for fresh resources, but why would this result in larger aggregations being any "twitchier" than smaller ones? -Geo -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
