In the vast, open ocean with no place to hide, sardines group together for protection. When they cannot rely on speed to escape, the sardines’ best chance is to outmaneuver the predator altogether. However, predators also seek ways to find weak spots in the group’s defence. In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence” (SCIoI), the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), and Cambridge University uncover the connection between how prey’s collective escape patterns emerge and why predators adopt specific strategies to attack them. Using a combination of computational modeling and observations from the aerial video footage, an interdisciplinary research team investigated the predator-prey behaviour of striped marlins (Kajikia audax) and sardine shoals (Sardinops sagax caerulea) in the open ocean. Their findings reveal that individual prey in groups follows simple decision-making rules, which lead to complex, collective self-organized manoeuvers – and that this response is something predators can capitalize on.
