Consensus!

May 28th, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

On cold winter mornings, right around sunrise, a crescendo of calls from hundreds of noisy jackdaws can often be heard right before they take to the sky all at once. How do they all know to do that? What kind of “democratic” decision-making is happening.

“Birdocracy,” one reporter called it.

But there is something to it. Say researchers from the University of Exeter and University of Cambridge in “Vocally Mediated Consensus Decisions Govern Mass Departures from Jackdaw Roosts,” published in the recent issue of Current Biology.

In the early morning, large groups of up to hundreds or even thousands of roosting birds, sometimes comprising the entire roost population, often take off together in sudden mass departures. These departures commonly occur in low-light conditions and structurally complex habitats where access to visual cues is likely to be restricted. Roosting birds are often highly vocal, leading us to hypothesise that vocalisations, which can propagate over large distances, could provide a means of enabling individuals to agree on when to depart—that is to establish a consensus—and thus coordinate the timing of mass movements.”

All for the collective good.

By establishing consensus to leave the roost early and in large flocks, birds may reduce predation risk, facilitate access to useful foraging information and increase access to mates.”

The scientists recorded hours of audio and video of six different jackdaw roosts in Cornwall, U.K. Take-off timing of departure, they found, was tightly linked to calling intensity with the group. There was the occasional departure in small numbers, but for the most part, these birds set out en masse, with hundreds of birds taking off within a span of four seconds. And the call intensities rose in the hour leading to the exit of the biggest group.

To confirm cause and effect, the researchers played recordings to the birds to see if they could get them to take off earlier than they would otherwise—and succeeded in engineering departures that were on average 6.5 minutes earlier.

Through their calls, jackdaws appear to effectively signal their willingness to leave, providing large groups with a means of achieving consensus to perform cohesive, collective departures from the roost. Maintaining group cohesion can provide substantial benefits, including reduced predation risk, improved foraging efficiency and greater access to mates and social information. To stay together and maintain these benefits, animals may have to reach consensus about when to move.”

If birds can be united, why can’t we, especially the body of Christ the church?

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling
with which you were called with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with the other in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1–3

Seven times “one” echoes in the next few verses, a unity deliberately created, with seven, a perfect number. Perfect unity!

one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who [is] over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4–6

If all of these are shared by us, then should not we individuals within the body of Christ be living as one right now—united, joined, singular?

And the goal?

… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature person, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13

Until we look like Christ, all of us!

SOURCE:
France24; Current Biology