People aren’t the only ones who show sympathy. Birds also seem to care about the fate of conspecifics. They notice how much food the others already have and then share theirs with individuals that were not given any. “They seem to take the each other’s perspective into account in their decision, and thus seem to show sympathy,” said Utrecht-based biologist Jorg Massen in an experiment with azure-winged magpies. He published his findings together with colleagues from the University of Vienna and the Swedish Lund University on September 30 in Scientific Reports.
Prosociality
Helping others was long regarded as typical human behavior. But it has become clear that it is not only confined to humans. Primates and some other social mammals show prosocial behavior. “My earlier research has shown that birds also sometimes do something for someone else,” says Massen. “The question was, however, whether this is ‘instinctive’ behavior that is ingrained, or whether this behavior is flexible, and whether these birds might also take into account how great the need of the other animal is.”
To investigate prosociality in birds, Massen subjected azure-winged magpies to an experiment. He gave one azure-winged magpie an abundance of mealworms—a popular delicacy for these birds—the other magpies also had access to mealworms or were given nothing at all. The magpie then had the opportunity to share the portion of mealworms with conspecifics through a wire mesh.
Differentiating
The researchers discovered that the magpies are inclined to share food with their peers. They differentiate, however, between whether others have food or do not have food, and subsequently cater to that lack. “Females mainly shared with the others if they had nothing. The males always shared. We think the latter has to do with ‘advertisement’: ‘Look at me being generous.’ With the females, it’s mainly to help the other if they have nothing.”
The azure-winged magpies are more inclined to share food as a response to begging, but it turns out that even without begging, the magpies share food with conspecifics that are less fortunate. This shows that azure-winged magpies might truly notice the need of others, even without begging behavior. “They seem to include the perspective of the other in their decision,” says Massen. “They may even show what we call sympathy.”
Similar motivation as people
Massen’s work not only shows that azure-winged magpies can exhibit prosocial behavior just like people, but also that they may well have the same motivation as people have to do so. “This could indicate that they may be able to empathize with the situation in which their peers find themselves and act accordingly, perhaps with sympathetic motivations. Further tests are however needed to truly investigate whether birds show empathy and sympathy.”
The research also confirms what scientists previously found in other animal species: So-called cooperative breeders that raise their young together have a strong tendency to help each other. “This also applies to humans. Like they say: ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ You see it in hunter-gatherers, but also in our contemporary society: We also take our children to daycare and schools. Because we let our children grow up in groups, we have become prosocial and can work well together. We now also see this in the azure-winged magpies.”
Azure-winged magpies show human-like generosity
More information:
Jorg J. M. Massen et al. Azure-winged magpies’ decisions to share food are contingent on the presence or absence of food for the recipient, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73256-0
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Birds share food with less fortunate conspecifics (2020, October 9)
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