Beautifully painted painters are not inclined to take risks to help unfamiliar relatives. This was reported by the press service of the Australian National University.
The beautifully painted malur is a songbird from the Australian songbird family. They differ in cooperative reproduction – they form stable small groups. They consist of a colony-dwelling mother pair supported by one or more males or females. In particular, individuals in these breeding groups clean their beaks and raise chicks.
“We found that such as hunter-gatherers are associated with three different types of associations: members of the same breeding group, familiar individuals from the same community, and unfamiliar birds from the wider population,” the scientists explain.
To find out, scientists are issuing distress calls on behalf of different people. A distress call is made when birds are attacked by a predator, so the issuance of these calls made it possible to test the birds’ willingness to help others in need.
As a result, it turned out that beautiful painters are very careful about whom they help. They risk life and limbs for birds from the same breeding group, but are more careful when helping strangers. In the case of strangers, the birds completely ignored their cries for help.
According to the authors, this points to a different purpose of different bird communities. The study should enable scientists to better understand the benefits of living in multilevel communities.