These Beautiful Birds Form Bonds That Resemble Human Friendship, New Study Finds
One quality often found in lasting friendships is the willingness to help one another. While this behavior is innate when it comes to human friendships, new research from Columbia University reveals that superb starlings—songbirds native to eastern Africa—also have reciprocal helping relationships.
Up until now, researchers thought family ties were the reason animals were cooperative with each other. However, the study led by Alexis Earl, a former PhD student at Columbia University, reveals that superb starlings form lasting friendships built on reciprocity, helping each other with the belief that the favor will be returned.
"Starling societies are not just simple families," Columbia professor Dustin Rubenstein told Columbia News. "They're much more complex, containing a mixture of related and unrelated individuals that live together, much in the way that humans do."
Related: The 8 Best Apps and Tools for Identifying Birds, According to Experts
The research team observed the birds for 20 years at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. During 40 breeding seasons, they documented thousands of interactions among hundreds of birds. Using DNA, they traced genetic ties to help map out the social networks within each group. For example, a bird that helped another during one breeding season might later become a breeder and receive help from that same feathered friend.
According to the study, which was published in Nature, the birds helped non-relatives to build a network of allies. Because the harsh conditions in the African savannah are unpredictable, forming bonds with non-relatives might serve as insurance. It's a way to maximize survival, not just for one bird but for the entire group. This type of mutual support is a strategy that mirrors human friendships.
The researchers also discovered that these reciprocal bonds sometimes lasted years. And in some cases, the birds chose to help specific non-relatives even when their kin were available to assist. "Many of these birds are essentially forming friendships over time," Rubenstein said. "Our next step is to explore how these relationships form, how long they last, why some relationships stay robust, while others fall apart."
According to Columbia News, this data builds on decades of research collected by Rubenstein and his colleagues and students on animal relationships. They have examined animal communities in various species around the world, including snapping shrimp in the Caribbean, wasps in Africa, beetles in Asia, and mice and lizards in Australia. "I think this kind of reciprocal helping behavior is likely going on in a lot of animal societies, and people just haven't studied them long enough to be able to detect it," Rubenstein said.
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