This blog post is part of a series called ‘Something Cool We’ve Learned’. In this series, we’ll be talking about cool new things we’ve come across recently – whether through an online course, a book, an article or something else. We hope that by sharing them, you can learn something cool too.
We at Pyxium love learning about all the new things people are doing each day – we know how powerful learning is, and it always amazes us to hear about what we as a species are learning day by day.
A lot of work is currently being done to understand aspects of the coronavirus – the way the virus behaves, possible ways to overcome it, as well as the impact it is having on society and the implications for a post-COVID world. One really cool article we came across was from Scientific American by resarchers Dana M. Hawley and Julia C. Buck.
The article explored the ways other species deal with infections within their social groups, and if and how they practiced ‘social distancing’. We’ve highlighted three lessons we learned that we can take from nature to help us navigate the pandemic.
Read on for details!
1. Sacrifice
The spiny lobster of Florida is no stranger to deadly viruses. The Panulirus argus virus is responsible for killing more than 50% of the young lobsters it infects.
The reason the virus is so prevalent amongst the young is their tendency to socialise – some of these younger lobsters live with up to 20 others, in the corals and rocks of the ocean. Living with so many others allows them to form a critical mass, keeping them far safer from potential predators than if they lived by themselves.
This behaviour changes in the face of the virus. When these lobsters are infected, their, ahem, urine gives off a distinctive smell that the others can detect. In this situation, the lobsters make a key decision – to distance themselves from the infected lobster.
This happens even when the dens they have are safe, and finding new dens is risky – there was even evidence of single lobsters leaving dens alone to find new dens, leaving them extremely vulnerable to attack.
What’s the lesson here? The lobsters have clearly evolved to behave in a particular way when it comes to slowing the spread of the virus: isolate the infection, even if it requires potentially risky sacrifices. Through this behaviour, they can ensure the long-term safety of the species through active short-term decisions.
2. Protecting the vulnerable
There are many other animals that undertake behavioural change in the face of a possibly deadly infection.
Studies on house finches (bird) and guppies (fish) showed similar social distancing behaviour in the presence of infected individuals.
Experiments were set up in which house finches were put in separate bird cages, and flanked either side by a healthy and sick finch. The researchers found a natural tendency for the flanked birds to avoid the sick bird and favour socialising with the healthy bird.
This seems expected. What was striking though was the level of aversion when concerning the health of the bird in the middle. When the bird in the middle was healthier, their aversion to the sick bird was less.
But when the middle bird had physical characteristics that suggested a weaker immune system (for instance a lower presence of antibodies in the bloodstream), they tended to avoid the sick bird more overtly and strongly.
Similar experiments hold true for guppies, a highly social fish, in tanks. When given the opportunity to socialise with infected individuals, many guppies did so. However, some actively avoided the infected individuals, and those that avoided the infected individuals were shown to be extremely susceptible to infection.
The lesson here: protect the vulnerable. Through the examples above, it seems evolution has created a natural tendency for vulnerable individuals to want to protect themselves.
As humans, we can go further than simply protecting ourselves if vulnerable, but protect others who may be vulnerable. In many instances, by practicing social distancing more strictly, we can better protect those who need protection the most.
3. Redefining social commitments
Both lessons above can be achieved by mirroring how certain animals behave naturally. We can, however, learn some key lessons from how some animals behave poorly in the presence of an infection.
Take mandrills (a primate). A key social behaviour they have is grooming – cleaning each other’s fur from dirt, bugs and more. In the presence of an infection, mandrills tend to groom those infected less.
However, research suggests mandrills don’t alter their behaviour for those close to them – if close relatives are infected, the grooming will carry on as usual.
Similarly, banded mongooses have been shown to not alter behaviour in the presence of infection. Highly social animals that often groom each other and rest by lying across others, they can become highly infected by continuing this behaviour with infected individuals, even if the infection is very visible.
Why does this happen? An answer could potentially lie in the power of social bonds. For mandrills, social standing plays a powerful role in life goals. For instance, females with higher social standing are likely to be more preferable as mates.
For banded mongooses, the social behaviour is intrinsic to how they live – how they hunt, ward off predators, and survive.
In both instances, the powerfully embedded social ties of the group mean they can’t be broken, even in situations where their breaking would be of benefit. When it comes to infections, they can spread more easily due to the highly social nature of the group.
What does this mean for us? We can see the dangers of hyper-socialisation, especially with close contact to others. The lesson seems to be two-fold.
Firstly, we can redefine what social commitments mean. If we think it good for social standing to hold big parties or gatherings, it will be harder to forgo these behaviours in times of need. A push towards ways of socialising that can mitigate infection risks (small gatherings, virtual meetups) will help keep more of us healthy.
Secondly, we can recognise our unique position on the planet. We, like mandrills and banded mongooses, are highly social creatures. We need social contact in order to be healthy.
Unlike these animals, however, we have at our disposal a huge amount of technology to help us socialise safely. We should be recognising, using and massively appreciating our ability to socialise with others through Zoom, hangouts and other forms of interconnectivity at our disposal.
Doing so not only keeps us healthy, but is a privilege that only humans can use to keep themselves safe during crisis, and ready to move forwards even more quickly when we can.
4. Conclusion
These were the main lessons we picked out. We found them extremely thought-provoking and curious, and we hope you did too! And more than anything, we hope you also feel you learned something cool.
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