How Do Birds Cope with Losing Members of Their Group?

Have you ever wondered how animals might respond to losing a member of their group? Many human activities, like hunting or changing the environment animals live in, can cause the loss of individual animals. However, how this loss affects the remaining animals in a group is still widely unknown. We wanted to investigate this question, so we tracked wild birds known as great tits. These birds form small groups within their population, called flocks. By removing individual birds from the wild, we were able to monitor how birds responded to losing a flockmate. Interestingly, the birds that lost their flockmates responded by making new flockmates and also by spending more time with their previous flockmates. These findings show us that losing animals from a population can affect how the remaining animals behave. This research could help improve people’s understanding of the effects of losing animals.