The formation, persistence and movement of self-organised biological aggregations aremediated by signals (e.g., visual, acoustic or chemical) that organisms use to communicatewith each other. To investigate the effect that communication has on the movement ofbiological aggregations, we use a class of nonlocal hyperbolic models that incorporatesocial interactions and different communication mechanisms between group members. Weapproximate the maximum speed for left-moving and right-moving groups, and shownumerically that the travelling pulses exhibited by the nonlocal hyperbolic modelsactually travel at this maximum speed. Next, we use the formula for the speed of atravelling pulse to calculate the reversal time for the zigzagging behaviour, and showthat the communication mechanisms have an effect on these reversal times. Moreover, weshow that how animals communicate with each other affects also the density structure ofthe zigzags. These findings offer a new perspective on the complexity of the biologicalfactors behind the formation and movement of various aggregations.
