Creationism in Crisis
Scientists Discover Flamingos Have Personalities Too
Scientists Discover Flamingos Have Personalities Too
The partner of one Caribbean flamingo helps it out in an argument with another pair
Caribbean flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber
Credit: Paul Rose
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Caribbean flamingos with chicks
© Claudio Contreras Koob/naturepl.com
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Nesting flamingos
© Claudio Contreras Koob/naturepl.com
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Flamingos bathing
© Claudio Contreras Koob/naturepl.com
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Flamingos bathing
Klaus Nigg, National Geographic Image Colection
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Flamingo chick
© Claudio Contreras Koob/naturepl.com
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Chick being fed
© Claudio Contreras Koob/naturepl.com
According to Creationist superstition, humans are specially created as a different form of life from the rest of creation and so are the only species capable of experiencing 'higher' emotions such as love and friendship, or of being able to empathise with other members of the same species. This superstition is vigorously maintained, probably because the cult leaders understand that it makes their dupes feel special enough, so they stick with the cult and reject any idea which seems to reduce their over-inflated sense of self-importance.
The superstition is maintained despite the growing number of examples of other species having these 'human' emotions, such as this example of flamingos forming friendship and mutual support groups depending on their personality. Flamingos with similar personalities prefer to associate together and will even defend one another if attacked by a member of another group.
Flamingos are highly gregarious and can be seen in groups ranging from a half dozen to many thousands. I have seen small flocks of maybe a dozen in Andalucia, Spain and in Kuwait, larger flocks of several thousand in the Camargue, France and probably tens of thousands on the Limasol Salt Lake, Akrotiri, Cyprus.
The research in question was carried out on a captive population of Caribbean flamingos at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, UK, by two scientists from Exeter University.
The research is explained in an Exeter University news release:
Flamingos form cliques of like-minded individuals within their flocks, new research shows.
Scientists analysed the personalities and social behaviour of Caribbean and Chilean flamingos.
Birds of both species tended to spend time with others whose personality was similar to their own.
The study, by the University of Exeter and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), reveals the complex nature of flamingo societies and could help in the management of captive flocks.
The “personality” of flamingos was assessed by measuring consistent individual differences, such as aggressiveness and willingness to explore.Our previous research has shown that individual flamingos have particular ‘friends’ within the flock. In this study, we wanted to find out whether individual character traits explain why these friendships form.
The answer is yes – birds of a feather flock together. For example, bolder birds had stronger, more consistent ties with other bold birds, while submissive birds tended to spend their time with fellow submissive flamingos.
Our findings need further investigation, both to help us understand the evolution of social behaviour and to improve the welfare of zoo animals. But it is clear from this research that a flamingo’s social life is much more complicated than we first realised.
Dr Paul Rose, corresponding author.
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology,
University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, UK And Wildlife & Wetlands Trust
Slimbridge Wetland Centre
Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, UK
In the Caribbean flamingos, birds of a certain personality type had a particular role within the group overall, but this was not found in the Chilean flock. The reasons for this are unclear, and it’s possible that a larger study of wild birds would find such a pattern.Like humans, flamingos appear to carve out different roles in society based on their personality. For example, we observed groups of aggressive birds which attempt to dominate rivals and tend to get in more fights. Meanwhile, the role of submissive birds may be more complex than simply being lower down the pecking order – they may be using a different approach to get what they need.
The various different personality groups provide social help to their members, for example by supporting each other in the many squabbles that take place in flamingo flocks.
Fionnuala McCully, first author
Now at the School of Environmental Sciences
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
The findings are based on observations of captive flamingos at WWT Slimbridge.
AbstractIt seems almost daily that scientists are showing how humans are far from unique in any way over and above the handful of differences to other species that make us a species in our own right. Sentience, morality, toolmaking and use, and now even personality and empathy in birds not noted for their high intelligence. Humans are proving once again to be nothing more than evolved social species with highly developed intelligence, problem solving and reasoning ability and advanced social skills. Not a matter of quality but of quantity.
Animal personalities manifest as consistent individual differences in the performance of specific behavioural expressions. Personality research has implications for zoo animal welfare, as it can further our understanding of how captive individuals may differ in their resource use and provide insight into improving individual and group social health. For group living species, personality may enable assortment based on similar behaviour and influence an individual’s interactions with conspecifics (e.g. social support). This research aimed to document how personality traits (aggressive, exploratory, submissive) influenced the social network structure of highly social animals in a captive environment. Data were collected from separate flocks of captive Caribbean (Phoenicopterus ruber) and Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) to identify relationships between birds and examine opportunities for social support. The flocks associated non-randomly, and in both cases, personality was a substantial predictor of network structure. Personality also predicted key elements of Caribbean flamingo social role (degree, betweenness and average association strength) conflict outcome, and propensity to provide social support, however these patterns were not replicated within the Chilean flamingo network. While both species appear to assort by personality, the broader relationship between personality and social role may vary depending on species and context.
McCully, F.R., Rose, P.E.
Individual personality predicts social network assemblages in a colonial bird.
Sci Rep 13, 2258 (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29315-3
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
The sad thing is how little of that evolved intelligence and reasoning ability is used by Creationists.
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