A divorce between humans is always a traumatic event, both for the couple who separate both, if there are, for children, who risk developing behavioral and health problems that also persist for a long time. And among the animals? There are many species that form stable couples, and which therefore can face a traumatic separation. To study its effects, an international team led by experts from the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, in Holland, has chosen the Cannaiola delle Seychelles as a model, a bird that, usually, form couples that last all life. The study is published on Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Monogami birds. The study, also told in a piece on The Conversation From the first author frying Spelman, he explains that monogamy is widespread among birds, why grow a chick in pairs It is the best way to survive the task, dividing the tasks. The Cannaiola delle Seychelles, which as the name suggests only lives in the African archipelago, is one of the most famous examples of monogamy between birds: their couples also last for life, defending the territory together and dealing with chicks.
Divorces and offspring. Previous studies, however, say that 14% of the couples of CanaNenele separate ahead of time: one of the two parents (not necessarily the father) leaves the nest and the territory, looking for a different partner, leaving the other parent alone to deal with the brood. The team that conducted the study used as a reference the population that lives on Cousin Island, a nature reserve in which studies on the canele -elderly and the other birds of the island have been completed for decades. The purpose of the investigation? Find out if there is a link between the divorces and the state of health of the chicks.
Clinical exams. The team then calculated The level of stress of the chicks whose parents are going through a divorce, measuring three different parameters: the length of the telomers (structures protect against DNA damage: the shorter they are, the stressed the animal), the quantity of red blood cells in the blood (the more there are, the better the animal is) and the amount of body fat. By combining the three parameters, it is possible to evaluate the level of stress and the state of health of the young canal.
Divorce immunity. The results of this analysis? Surprising: there is no link between a divorce and the stress levels of the chicks involved, nor with their possibility of survival – the CanaNelele daughters of divorced live as long as those daughters of a still united couple.
The reasons for this “immunity” can be many: for example the fact that, after a divorce, the parent who remains in the nest takes us A few hours to find a new partner. In addition, it can count, in the periods in which it is single, on the help of other specimens not learned with them, a form of solidarity between the canelele that occurs when some adults cannot find a partner, and therefore they dedicate themselves to the other couples.
