While I was researching the types of ecosystems that exist, I came across the term “Lévy walk.” This is a common pattern in the movement of organisms, and it seems that this pattern can be seen in quite a lot of phenomena.The Lévy walk is a type of random walk that changes direction randomly, and is characterized by the fact that, among short, irregular movements, extremely long straight movements occasionally appear. The movement patterns used by basking sharks, sea turtles, penguins, and other creatures when searching for food are said to be Lévy walk patterns.
https://www.natureasia.com/ja-jp/nature/highlights/18154
The Lévy walk is also apparently seen in bacteria, T cells, cancer cells, fruit flies, honeybees, insects such as pill bugs and ants, fish such as tuna, birds such as albatrosses, and mammals such as jackals and spider monkeys.This pattern is the predicted optimal behavioral strategy when searching for a target without prior information on the location of the target, such as food. By following this pattern, the encounter rate with the target is maximized. It seems to be effective not only when searching for food, but also when searching for a partner. Is this also a type of survival strategy?
https://academist-cf.com/journal/?p=14781
Lévy walks were originally discovered as the movement of particles floating in liquid, but it’s amazing that they have a common pattern in so many different living organisms, from cells to microorganisms, insects, and mammals. The distance and frequency of Lévy walks follow a probability distribution called the Lévy distribution, which is a probability model that fluctuates more extremely than the standard normal distribution.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1076312?language=japanese
It seems that there are many natural phenomena that cannot be explained by pure randomness or normal distribution, but this Lévy walk, also known as a Lévy flight, appears to be a type of power distribution.A power distribution is a distribution in which a small number of extremely high values and a large number of low values occur, and the probability of occurrence is proportional to the power of the value, and this applies to the size and frequency of earthquakes, the damage area and frequency of forest fires, etc. It is a probability distribution in which many small events occur, and extremely large events occur very rarely.
https://ura.sec.tsukuba.ac.jp/archives/22759
There is a theory that the Levi Walk occurs when a certain limit is reached, and that by making extreme movements with a low probability, you can break out of the situation.I don’t know if we were born with it or have acquired it over time, but I feel like there is some kind of meaning behind the systems and laws that are common to all living things and organisms. The Levi Walk is amazing. The laws of nature on Earth are amazing.
