Why do animals form swarms? - Maria R. D'Orsogna
Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-animals-form-swarms-maria-r-d-orsogna When many individual organisms come together...
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When desert locusts are well fed, they're solitary creatures. But when food becomes scarce, hungry, desperate locusts crowd onto small patches of land where they can still find something to eat. Contact between different locusts' hind legs set off a slew of reactions that change their appearance and behavior. Now, instead of shunning their peers, they seek each other out. The locusts eventually start marching and then fly away in large numbers seeking a better habitat. These gigantic swarms can host millions of insects and travel thousands of miles, devastating vegetation and crops. They stay close to each other, but not too close, or they might get eaten by their hungry neighbors. When many individual organisms, like locusts, bacteria, an...
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When desert locusts are well fed, they're solitary creatures. But when food becomes scarce, hungry, desperate locusts crowd onto small patches of land where they can still find something to eat. Contact between different locusts' hind legs set off a slew of reactions that change their appearance and behavior. Now, instead of shunning their peers, they seek each other out. The locusts eventually start marching and then fly away in large numbers seeking a better habitat. These gigantic swarms can host millions of insects and travel thousands of miles, devastating vegetation and crops. They stay close to each other, but not too close, or they might get eaten by their hungry neighbors. When many individual organisms, like locusts, bacteria, an...
