–Camelia Bhattacharyya, Amity University Kolkata
We human beings often ignore something we dislike and that’s often termed as neophobia; but can other animals also show certain changes in behavior due to it? Well absolutely.
A recent paper published on animal behavior shows how house sparrows can react differently with different phenotypes. The environment the sparrows were used to were changed and their behavior studied after caging them with another phenotype.
Results showed how sparrows can learn from a previous situation. Those sparrows caged with less neophobic phenotype first showed a change in eating habits, but when caged with a more neophobic one, showed less neophobia thus signifying how the bird can adapt and learn from the behaviour of another bird in a particular environment. The attenuation in the behaviour of these birds also shows how the nervous system or neurons of these birds to be specific, react to certain stimuli in the form of unknown environment.
Source: No, you go first: phenotype and social context affect house sparrow neophobia. Kelly TR, Kimball MG, Stansberry KR, Lattin CR. 2020Biol. Lett. 16: 20200286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0286
Interesting..well written..