Oxford University
found male great tits would rather starve than leave their mate
12:01AM GMT 13 Nov
2015
It is said that
the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but a new study suggests that
when it comes to love males will actually forgo food rather than give up their
mate.
Oxford University has been monitoring the great tits of Whytham Woods, in Oxfordshire, to
test the strength of the bond between mating pairs.
Much like humans,
birds tend to be socially monogamous: they find a partner to mate with and
remain exclusive with this partner for many seasons.
However
researchers thought that they may split up if being together meant that one had
to sacrifice eating.
To test the theory
they created two special bird boxes full of seed which had electronic doors
that could only be opened in the presence of special radio tags attached to the
bird’s legs. The male tit could not open the female’s seed box, and vice versa.
But rather than
going their separate ways in their hunt for a meal, researchers found that the
male stayed with the female, even when it meant starving.
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