A field study by a group of biologists, including Roslyn Dakin, Professor of Biology at Carleton University, on the social behaviour and approaches to friendship formation of the manakin, a small tropical bird, was featured in the Ottawa Citizen.
Dakin and her co-author, Brandt Ryder of the Smithsonian Institution, followed 180 birds over three years in Ecuador, hand-tying custom-designed radio “backpacks” on each one. They found that the stability of one friendship depended on the nature of a bird’s overall social circle – “in ways that surprised us, and I think have some similarities to humans.” The friendship lasted longer, she found, if the birds involved had a limited number of friends overall.
Read more about Roslyn Dakin’s research at: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/for-bird-and-humans-more-friends-doesnt-mean-better-friends?fbclid=IwAR3YiS09KDuqmGHIXgVLt5KxwL2dn8t3d93ClUieruMW8dIL5A-NUe825ag.
