Starlings form ‘friendships’ to help each other with breeding, study finds | Animal behaviour
Badmons flow together, so the proverb says. But scientists who study the behavior of Starlings have found their ability to give and take their relationships make their relationships closer to human friendships than previously believed.
About 10 % of the types of birds and 5 % of the types of mammals are born “cooperatively”, which means that some individuals refrain from multiplying to help others care for their offspring. Some species to help those who have nothing to do with.
Now the researchers who study the wonderful stars have found that support reduces both directions, with birds that have received help or guarding their chicks that date back when the “assistant” bird has its own offspring.
Professor Dustin Robinstein, co -author of the study from Columbia University, said this behavior may be necessary for the wonderful stars because they live in a harsh environment where dehydration is common and food is limited.
He said: “Two birds may not be able to feed their offspring on their own, so they need these assistants to help them,” adding that with the production of every bunch of birth controls, birds should be recruited from outside the family group to help young people stay.
Robinstein said: “What is happening is that non-codes enter the group, and they multiply very quickly, usually in the first year, and perhaps in the second year, then take some time on vacation and some other birds-and we never understand the reason.” “But they constitute these marital mutual relationships, meaning that I may help you this year, and after that it will help me in the future.”
The results are in harmony with the previous work of Robinstein and his colleagues who have found that the wonderful stars that live in larger groups have a greater opportunity to survive and birth production, although the new work indicates that the approach of giving and imagination helps to install these groups.
Writing in the Journal of NatureRobinstein and his colleagues reported how they studied to study the wonderful stars in 410 nests in Kenya, which extends nine social groups, where they recorded data over 20 years of 2002, which covered more than 40 seasons of reproduction. The team also collected the DNA from 1175 birds to explore their relationships together.
The results reveal that instead of helping birds randomly, Starlings helped preferred to raising the birds that were associated with them, especially if they are born in the same nest. However, they also helped raising unrealistic birds, even when there were opportunities to help relatives.
The team found that the assistants tend to help specific education birds. It is important, that these husbands of educators and assistants often turned roles from the breeding season to the next – especially if they are immigrants to the group.
“You can think about it as friendships, meaning that they are not relatives,” said Robinstein.
However, Robinstein said questions that remained. “Why don’t they get help and then do not repeat the same in the future?” He said, adding that the team was collecting more data to explore the puzzle.
The team said that although studies have often focused on how a family member helps promote the opportunity of the genes of assistants that are passed due to common assets, the new work has shown assistance-including among the non-aggressive-can achieve other benefits.
Dr. Julia Schroeder, an expert in behavioral environment at the Imperial College College in London, which did not participate in the work, said that research has supported the idea that birds can recognize each other individually, and confirmed previous doubts that they participated in this tender behavior.
She said: “It helps us to better understand altruism and the development of altruism, because it is still a little mystery.”
