Levy flights model acivities that involve a lot of small steps, interspersed with occasional very large excursions. |
Examples include |
  foraging paths of some deer and albatross, |
  and games of hide-and-seek. |
In the case of foraging paths, this result is sensible because the stopping points of a Levy flight are fractal (scale invariant is the main point here), and in complex ecosystems the distribution of food is fractal. |
Fractal distribution of food means there are some large areas without food. |
To avoid spending too much time in such unproductive areas, animals need to develop search strategies that generate a fractal distribution of stopping points. Levy flights have this property. |
As to why hide-and-seek is well-described by a Levy flight, reccall how it is played. |
  The seeker runs across the yard (long trip) to a spot with several plausible hiding places. |
  That area is investigated (several short trips) until the possibilities are exhausted. |
  Then the seeker runs across the yard (another long trip) to the next spot with several hiding places. |
  To be sure, there are more small trips than large trips, but not that many more. |
  Careful analysis yields (approximately) a power-law distribution of trip sizes. |
Return to Levy flights.