Scaling and Intermittency in Animal Behavior

Abstract

Scale-invariant spatial or temporal patterns and Lévy flight motion have been observed in a large variety of biological systems. It has been argued that animals in general might perform Lévy flight motion with power law distribution of times between two changes of the direction of motion. Here we study the temporal behaviour of nesting gilts. The time spent by a gilt in a given form of activity has power law probability distribution without finite average. Further analysis reveals intermittent eruption of certain periodic behavioural sequences which are responsible for the scaling behaviour and indicates the existence of a critical state. We show that this behaviour is in close analogy with temporal sequences of velocity found in turbulent flows, where random and regular sequences alternate and form an intermittent sequence.