the.com/herd
safety in numbers, computed by every animal too modest to be a hero
means A group of large animals that live, move, and graze together, or the act of gathering and driving them as one body.
from From Old English 'heord,' a group of domestic animals, with deep Germanic roots — cousins to German 'Herde' and reaching back to a Proto-Indo-European base meaning 'a row' or 'crowd.' Note the kin who keeps them: a 'herd' was once also the person tending the flock, surviving today only in compounds like 'shepherd' (sheep-herd) and 'cowherd.' The verb — to herd animals together — followed naturally from the noun, since you can scarcely have a herd without someone bunching it up.
- selfish herd
- animals crowd inward, shoving neighbors toward predators
- no leader
- flocks turn via simple rules, no boss required
- wildebeest math
- 1.5 million migrate Serengeti yearly, no map
- herd immunity
- the crowd protects those who can't protect themselves
- word root
- shares ancestry with the unrelated-looking word horde
wildebeest migration serengeti — approximately 1.5 million wildebeest cross the serengeti-mara ecosystem annually in tanzania and kenya
porcupine herd north america — north american porcupines form loose herds in winter in forests across canada and northern us states
elephant herd amboseli kenya — matriarch-led family groups of african elephants, largest documented herd exceeds 100 individuals in amboseli national park