Birds 'behave like football fans'
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Rival groups of birds behave like football fans, shouting chants at each other and commiserating after a loss, according to a UK researcher.
Green woodhoopoes, a South African bird, live together in gangs of up to 12 and "rival groups often engage in raucous vocal displays, akin to opposing football supporters chanting at one another", says Dr Andy Radford of University of Bristol.
The study appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B.
Radford found that the birds preen each other (allopreen) after a conflict, particularly when they have just lost or the battle lasted a long time.
"There was significantly more body allopreening following long conflicts that were lost compared with those that were won," he writes.
Radford suggests birds act like football fans, commiserating with their friends in the pub after their team loses a match.
He believes they do this to reduce stress within the group, a trait more commonly seen in mammals.
"The receipt of allogrooming, the mammalian equivalent of allopreening, is known to decrease an individual's heart rate and tension-related activities," he says.
Radford adds that preening rates were highest among the most conflict-prone groups and suggests dominant members may preen subordinates in return for their participation in battles, or possibly to encourage them to stand in future fights.
"Preening may reduce stress and enhance cohesion among group members, which is particularly important following battles that are lost," he says.
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Experts have long suggested a link between the amount of conflict in a group and the level of cooperation between its members, but almost no empirical studies had investigated the possibility.
-AFP
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therefore soccer lovers got birdbrains
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Originally posted by Bangulzai:
therefore soccer lovers got birdbrains
What do you expect?
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
What do you expect?
dunno oso. my conclusion gather from the article itself
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Birds and humans do share some sort of similarities...
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Originally posted by lianamaster:
Birds and humans do share some sort of similarities...
Case of parallel evolution?
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I heard of humans evolved from apes but not birds...
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Originally posted by lianamaster:
I heard of humans evolved from apes but not birds...
Sorry, I mean parallel evolution in behaviours and mentalities.
Bird brains?
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Sorry, I mean parallel evolution in behaviours and mentalities.
Bird brains?
Sounds chimm.... but never mind...
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Originally posted by lianamaster:
Sounds chimm.... but never mind...
Not really.
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there's other similar behaviours in birds such as display of motherly love in birds and cats
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Originally posted by Bangulzai:
there's other similar behaviours in birds such as display of motherly love in birds and cats
That's part of continuum of a species.
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wat does dat mean? i take it to mean all species haf this trait u mean? not so leh. some animals don't care for their young rite?
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Originally posted by Bangulzai:
wat does dat mean? i take it to mean all species haf this trait u mean? not so leh. some animals don't care for their young rite?
That particular motherly love is a trait of making sure the continuation of species. Some species don't; some are parasitic like the cuckoos.
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understood
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Originally posted by Bangulzai:
there's other similar behaviours in birds such as display of motherly love in birds and cats
True...