Nothing like urban street smarts. A survey conducted by McGill Canadian university found that birds living in the city are smarter than their rural cousins - and also have better health.
The study analyzed 53 bird species loxigilla barbadensis. The animals were captured in 8 different points of the island of Barbados, some more, some less urbanized. The birds were then subjected to tests which checked how they dealt with challenges of intelligence and how was your immune system. For urban animals fared better in all stages of the study.
Intelligence tests were causing the birds to think of different ways of achieving their food. The idea is that innovation would be useful both for urban animals, as wild. The challenges, the animals had to open compartments, identifying mechanisms, and identifying colors. Only 26% of animals collected in nature managed to complete the reasoning tests - since the index among the city's animals was nearly double, to 50%. The video of one of the challenges you can see below:
But the big surprise of the study was the health of city birds. The animals had a higher immune system to wildlife. "As urban birds were better in problem solving, we expected would happen an exchange and that their immunity would be lower, just because we assume that it can not be good at all. It seems that in this case, the city birds win at all, "he said in a statement Jean-Nicolas Audet, biology student at the university and author of the project
The researchers believe that the results are better for the birds of the city because they are in constant contact with adverse situations, such as changing the found food, human disturbance and disease. All these problems just by selecting the strongest individuals.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário