Cockroaches live in a democracy

international | animal rights | other press Thursday November 02, 2006 12:19 by Terence

Cockroaches Make Group Decisions

This is an interesting report on some research into the study of cockroaches from the Free University Of Brussels in Beligum. The findings show that they follow some simple decision making rules and this has helped open up the understanding of these creatures and other insects too because they also follow similar patterns or rules. It seems that they operate without any leaders. Now if we could just do that.

It also intriguing because it shows that the idea of equality and some forth is not just a human construct but is something that goes to the heart of nature.

It was difficult whether to categorise this story under democracy, environment, rights and freedoms or what. I eventually decided upon animal rights, because I guess it's about animals / insects incorportating certain rights in their own environments in their own terms.

This report on research on cockroaches who communicate not by sound, but by touch and vision and from which some rather surprising findings have arisen. The insects live in groups and derive benefits from this and in order for these groups to function properly they needed some way of sharing and allocating resources. By working this way the net gain is higher for all. This is of course what we humans are doing, but we don't seem to be too good at the sharing and allocating resources equally bit very well.

Anyway here's some extracts from the report:


Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study.

The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows.


AND


Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.

After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

When the researchers altered this setup so that it had three shelters with a capacity for more than 50 insects, all of the cockroaches moved into the first "house."


AND


David Sumpter, an Oxford University zoologist, told Animal Planet News that the new study "is an excellent paper."

Sumpter continued, "It is important because it looks both at the mechanisms underlying decision-making by animals and how those mechanisms produce a distribution of animals amongst resource sites that optimizes their individual fitness. Much previous research has concentrated on either mechanisms or optimality at the expense of the other."

For cockroaches, it seems, cooperation comes naturally.


Full report at: