
What's the Biggest Animal Gathering Ever? - rfreytag
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/03/21/291501411/what-s-the-biggest-animal-gathering-ever-was-rod-stewart-there
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ggchappell
This was amazing:

> A single locust swarm was once [in 1875] estimated to weigh 27 million tons,
> including (drum roll, please) ... 12 trillion insects.

And then:

> Shockingly, 28 years after Albert saw that flock, Rocky Mountain locusts
> disappeared. Something wiped them out, totally. The last time humans saw a
> wild Rocky Mountain locust was in 1902.

Wikipedia[1] says:

> The cause of their extinction was probably the plowing and irrigation by
> settlers that disrupted the natural life cycle of the insects in the very
> small areas where they lived in between swarms.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust)

~~~
computator
When I think of animals that went extinct in human history, I imagine animals
that were already marginal, weren't well-suited to the environment, and died
off slowly over a very long period.

The passenger pigeon example really caught me off guard: "The species went
from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century
to extinction early in the 20th century"[1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon)

~~~
pixl97
>Large flocks and communal breeding made the species highly vulnerable to
hunting.[28] As the flocks dwindled in size, populations decreased below the
threshold necessary to propagate the species.[81][82] Naturalist Paul R.
Ehrlich wrote that its extinction "illustrates a very important principle of
conservation biology: it is not always necessary to kill the last pair of a
species to force it to extinction."

The most important statement on its extinction.

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ckluis
Most people do not understand the scale difference from 100,000 to 1,000,000
much less billion. To hear 13 trillion may have been the largest animal
gathering… mind boggling.

~~~
pkfrank
One locust swarm was estimated to have covered ~200,000sq miles.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust))

~~~
Amezarak
Wow. Interesting that the Rocky Mountain locust proceeded to go extinct 30
years later. It boggles the mind that a species of 12 trillion could go
extinct so quickly.

I didn't know about the Rocky Mountain locust - my favorite example was always
the passenger pigeon, which by some accounts flew in such enormous flocks the
sun was blocked out for _days_ by dense flocks moving through and dung fell
"like snow".

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beachstartup
when i was in school in san diego, a giant migrating flock of butterflies flew
through one day... the entire city was engulfed in butterflies for an entire
day (not exaggerating). it was awesome, and sad at the same time as many of
them died en route.

here's an article... apparently it's "millions and millions"

[http://www.kcet.org/news/the_back_forty/wildlife/painted-
lad...](http://www.kcet.org/news/the_back_forty/wildlife/painted-lady-
butterflies-migrate-through-san-diego.html)

~~~
charlie_vill
it is technically called a Kaleidoscope of Butterflies (sometimes Swarm) --
pretty cool name huh?!

~~~
beachstartup
that's cool. i knew 'flock' didn't sound right...

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charlie_vill
This is very interesting and quite frankly awesome but I was hoping to see
some breathtaking pictures and not cartoons - the kind you see on National
Graphic.

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jisaacks
When I was stationed in D.C. in 2003/2004 we had a swarm of cicadas that year
that was remarkable. People on the subway literally had them crawling on their
backs. The roads and sidewalks were paved in their corpses. I lived on the 9th
floor of an apartment and the sound even at that level was very loud.

~~~
e40
When I was a kid in KY there was a cicadas swarm. I remember walking down the
street and there being piles of the exoskeletons. It was quite surreal.

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Zaheer
Curious to see what the largest Human gathering was/is?

~~~
frandroid
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela)

~~~
computator
I wonder why they called it the largest _peaceful_ gathering of people [1].
Are there even bigger wartime gatherings?

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_peaceful_gather...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_peaceful_gatherings_in_history)

~~~
bradleyjg
If that wikipedia article is accurate (80 million people at a single
gathering) no battle comes close. Operation Barbarossa (i.e. the Axis invasion
of the Soviet Union in WWII) involved as many as 6.7 million troops, but it
took place along a 1800 mile front and over the course of nearly six months.

It makes sense that you wouldn't get nearly the same density in warfare,
especially modern(ish) warfare, as you do in a peaceful gathering.

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shalmanese
The modern equivalent of the passenger pigeon is the the red billed quelea
which can form flocks that take 5 hours to fly past:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-
billed_quelea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_quelea)

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tyoung
One of the happiest 1 hour of my life this week was watching these Swarms
documented:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Pr2tIPkuw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Pr2tIPkuw)

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eevilspock
I'm a bit perplexed about how the ecosystem could even support most of these.
Or maybe that explains the extinctions. The locusts, the herrings and the
passenger pigeons should have all read Malthus.

~~~
adekok
Locusts are simply grasshoppers who bumped up against Malthus. Literally.

[http://www.asknature.org/strategy/33ba1618fc358f29f0be63a19e...](http://www.asknature.org/strategy/33ba1618fc358f29f0be63a19ee36050)

The grasshopper population grows until they start physically bumping into each
other. Then they turn into locusts. The swarm moves because the front of the
swarm is eating all of the plants, which leaves nothing for the locusts at the
rear of the swarm.

i.e. the ones at the rear of the swarm start eating the ones in front of them.
Who move in order to stay alive.

