Thaindian News

Washington, May 21 (IANS) Nature can be a good inspiration for designing better security systems, a new study by the University of Arizona (UA) suggests.
The study, led by Rafe Sagarin, assistant research scientist at the university’s Institute of the Environment, encourages officials to look to the natural world for principles that could prove less costly, more flexible and more effective at countering threats.

In nature, risks are frequent, variable and uncertain. Over billions of years, organisms have evolved an enormous variety of methods to survive, grow and proliferate on a continually changing planet.

The key to their success is their ability to quickly adapt to rapidly changing threats, and change their structures, behaviours and interactions accordingly.

Unlike many security agencies or entities in the human world, the most adaptable and successful organisms avoid centralisation. Instead, they distribute tasks among decentralised, specialized groups of cells or individuals.

Sagarin points to the octopus’ camouflaging strategy to illustrate this principle: Its networks of pigment cells, distributed all over its body, react to and match the colours of the surroundings, blending the animal into the background.

Just like the octopus’ decentralised network of pigment cells, he pointed out, troops on the ground function like independent sensors that can assess a threat more accurately, more timely and more realistically than a large, centralised organization that is geographically removed from the action and largely follows a top-down approach of command.

Another lesson could be learned by looking at how organisms deal with the constant threat from predators, according to the authors. A key feature is the capacity to reduce uncertainty and turn it into an advantage.

Hunting prey uses a lot of energy, Sagarin explained, which is why predators seek to ambush their prey. As soon as the prey is aware of their presence and ready to engage in defence, a pursuit might no longer be worth it.

Ground squirrels, for example, use alarm signals when a predator is lurking nearby, not only to warn their peers, but also to make it known to the attacker its cover is blown.

“When a prey species makes an alarm call of any kind, the game is up,” Sagarin said. Suddenly, things have become a lot harder - if you’re a hawk, you want to swoop down on a squirrel and not get scratched in the face.”

Remarkably, ground squirrels use alarm signals that are very specific to the threat. If the predator is a mammal (which can hear), they utter alarm calls. If it is a snake (which cannot) they use tail-flagging to signal its presence.

Another principle often observed in nature is symbiosis, the formation of allies, said a UA release.

“Symbiosis is not always between friends,” Sagarin said, pointing to the example of cleaner wrasses, small fish specialising in picking parasites off other marine animals, sometimes entering their mouths.

These findings were published in the latest edition of Nature.