Turns out humans aren't the only species that benefit from
making friends with non-kin! As humans,
we benefit from having close friends in that they help us manage stress which
can help lead to a longer life. Turns
out that, in other species, having a close friend can actually be an
evolutionary advantage: organisms with close friends are more likely to
reproduce and are better at fighting diseases.
Some male chimpanzees spend significantly more time with certain other
chimpanzees; they groom each other, share meat, and even hunt together. Some female baboons groom certain other
baboons much more than others and are more likely to help out a baboon that has
recently groomed them. If a fight ensues
shortly after the grooming, having that extra baboon friend to help out could
almost certainly mean the difference between life and death. These baboons that form close bonds have more
surviving offspring and live longer.
These results have also been found in other monkeys, lions,
elephants, dolphins, and rodents. It was
recently discovered that female horses in New Zealand tend to form friendships
with non-relatives in order to keep aggressive stallions at bay. Mares risk their lives to help their friends
with the expectation that the same help will be given if they ever need help
with aggressive stallions. Researchers
are currently trying to understand how this occurs physiologically. Thus far, they have pinpointed both a
particular social-bonding hormone and oxytocin in monkeys; monkeys with more of
these hormones are more generous.
Hopefully, further research in this area will help us to understand how
human's tendency to form such close bonds with unrelated individuals evolved.
Here's the link to the article, check it out!
-Cristina Terhoeve
I find this very intriguing and I find myself filled with a whole bunch of questions, now! I wonder if there are any instances of inter-species friendships? I have definitely heard stories about dogs who do amazing things for their owners, does that constitute as a best friend? Or what about different types of pets in the same household? Are such phenomena only possible in relatively stress-free environments? I also wonder about what would happen to the individuals mentioned in your article if one of them died? Would the other be strongly affected? Would the other care for young offspring of her deceased friend? Always more questions and more research to be done.
ReplyDeleteThe argument to this post would be do we chose friends based on their similarity to us and thus on how close their genes may be to our own and thus it does have weight in kin selection?
ReplyDeleteFascinating! Has the particular social-bonding hormone and oxytocin in monkeys also been found in the other species mentioned? Also, along the lines of Elizabeth's post, what about inter-species relationships? Humans like to connect with something warm and fuzzy, but there are also other cases of inter-species friendships, such as between barnyard animals, like cows/horses and cats. Also between sheep and sheepdogs. I wonder if there is the same or different molecular/hormonal basis for that relationship like the same-species friendship.
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