What is known of the way the wildebeest communicate? How are the decisions being made?
Recent research suggests that the mantle of leadership rotates around the herd, based on an individual’s motivation. For example, one animal starts feeling hungrier than the rest of the herd and its individual response becomes stronger than its herding instinct. “In other words, it’s going to break away from the herd and say, ‘You know what, I need to find food’,” explains Grant Hopcraft, who leads the Serengeti Biodiversity Programme. “At that point, that animal becomes the leader and everybody follows because the herding instinct kicks in.”
As they move, they might come across a thicket. Another animal, who has experienced a predator attack in a similar landscape, might think ‘I don’t like thick vegetation. I don’t care what you lot are doing, I’m going this way’ and she heads off in a different direction, taking the herd with her — the mantle of leadership having passed to that animal.