Many wrongs: the advantage of group navigation

Abstract

Research into the puzzling phenomena of animal navigation and aggregation has proceeded along two distinct lines. Study of navigation generally focuses on the orientation ability of the individual without reference to the implications of group membership. A simple principle (the 'many wrongs principle'), first proposed by Bergman and Donner in 1964, and developed by both Hamilton and Wallraff three decades ago, provides a link between these lines of current interest by suggesting that navigational accuracy increases with group size. With unprecedented scope for testing the hypotheses it generates, it is now time that the many wrongs principle is exhumed.