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A dilution effect is seen when animals living in a group "dilute" their risk of attack, each individual being just one of many in the group. George C. Williams and W.D. Hamilton proposed that group living evolved because it provides benefits to the individual rather than to the group as a whole, which becomes more conspicuous as it becomes larger.
Collective animal behaviour is a form of social behavior involving the coordinated behavior of large groups of similar animals as well as emergent properties of these groups. This can include the costs and benefits of group membership, the transfer of information, decision-making process, locomotion and synchronization of the group.
The dilution effect shows the idea that an individual in a large group will have a reduced risk of predation compared to an individual in a small group or a solitary individual. Hence the risk is ‘diluted’ among the other members in a group. It is important to note however; this effect only occurs where predators are unable to capture all ...
Dilution of predation risk is one of many proposed benefits that have facilitated the selection of such behavior. Much research has been devoted to understanding the possible evolution of the selfish herd and thus, the plausibility of the theory.
Vigilance, in the field of behavioural ecology, refers to an animal's monitoring of its surroundings in order to heighten awareness of predator presence. Vigilance is an important behaviour during foraging as animals must often venture away from the safety of shelter to find food.
The oddity effect would thus tend to homogenise shoals. [108] One puzzling aspect of shoal selection is how a fish can choose to join a shoal of animals similar to themselves, given that it cannot know its own appearance. Experiments with zebrafish have shown that shoal preference is a
Although the dilution effect is influenced by so-called selfish herding, it is primarily a direct effect of group size instead of the position within a herd. Greater group sizes result in higher visibility and detection rates for predators, but this relation is not directly proportional and saturates at some point, while the risk of being ...
Champagne gene, describes a different dilution gene in horses that also creates cream coloring, pale skin with mottling and light-colored eyes. Pearl gene, also called the "Barlink factor", is a recessive gene. One copy of the allele has no effect on the coat color of black, bay or chestnut horses.