Living With Roommates Is Sorely Underrated
Published by Time Magazine in September 2024. Photo by Shawn Linehan.
In March, a group of U.K. biologists, zoologists, and chemical ecologists published the latest results of a long-term study on group living among wild great tits. (Yes: wild great tits—birds.) In the winter of 2018, they tracked 105 great tits at two sites in the Wytham Woods, curious to test whether these small birds’ social networks influenced what they ate. This turned out to be the case—the scientists found that when the tits had larger social networks and were embedded in more expansive communities, they felt safer taking risks and eating new foods. The researchers call this “social learning.” These findings echoed the results of other avian studies: group living allows for more complex cooperative hunting, more terrain covered in search of food, and a greater ability to avoid predators.
