Canada Geese Formation

John Badgerow, in his article An analysis of function in the formation flight of Canada geese, experimentally validates two proposed ideas explaining collective movement among geese. The first hypothesis, energy conservation in flight, originates from aerodynamic formations of other species and states that group flight is more efficient than solitary flight in terms of expended energy. The second proposition, orientation communication between individuals, predicts that formations arise from the most beneficial positioning of individuals to maintain visual contact with others. The potential for these ideas to describe the synchrony of other species, especially since all organisms want to conserve energy and retain the ability to communicate …show more content…
The results showed evidence supporting both hypotheses, where 27 formations supported the energetic model, 8 for the orientation model, 8 for both possibilities, and 7 for neither. In spite of the environmental conditions that affected the readings such as turbulence and wind velocity/direction, the data showed that there was little variance in positioning between individuals, which suggests that the geese attempted to maneuver into a certain position, most likely to benefit from group flight. In addition, the birds conserved approximately 10% compared to flight when alone, which John claims may convert into a longer flight distance or increased stamina. With respect to orientation, the constraints made it difficult to analyze but the geese changed formation primarily near predators, although the evidence was already present in other species. These two hypotheses suggest that geese fly in a formation as it is beneficial, both in terms of communication and in terms of energy conservation. As a result, the rationale and mechanism behind synchronous movement in animals is closer to being