Local Convergence of Behavior Across Species

Behavior is a way for organisms to respond flexibly to the environmental conditions they encounter. Our own species occurs in a variety of habits, sharing these with a large number of other species, but it remains unclear to what degree a shared environment constrains behavior. Here, we show that foraging human populations and non-human mammal and bird species who live in a given environment show high levels of similarity in their foraging, reproductive, and social behavior. Our findings suggest that local conditions may select for similar behaviors in both humans and non-human animals.

Publication: TOMAN BARSBAI, et al., Local convergence of behavior across species, SCIENCE (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.abb7481

Original Story Source: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology