Gregarisation

According to a recent report by scientists, locust movement is decided on a cognitive decision-making process based on their perception of nearby motion.

• The finding marks a major shift in how scientists understand locust behaviour and their ability to make swarm-related predictions.

• As climate change continues to alter locusts’ breeding patterns, this refined understanding may be the key to protecting crops, and livelihoods, before the next swarm arrives. In locust swarms, collective movement emerges from each locust’s individual behavior, creating large, coordinated swarms without a leader.

• Locusts are grasshoppers that, in the right conditions, multiply rapidly. They grow larger and change colour in response to their environment.

• In a process called gregarisation, they transition from solitary creatures to a swarm, congregating in large numbers and travelling together over several leagues at time.

• Historically, locust ‘outbreaks’ have led to widespread famine and economic devastation, earning them the name “locust plagues”.

• The 2019-2022 outbreak was the worst to hit Kenya in 70 years and to hit Ethiopia, Somalia, and India in 25 years. More than 200,000 hectares of crops were destroyed.

(Source: The Hindu)