![]() ![]() Langager’s study, “Let's stick together: Infection enhances preferences for social grouping in a songbird species” with co-authors James S. Ultimately, this might be the reason that finches become even more social when sick, inadvertently putting their healthy flock mates at risk because bird feeders, where house finches like to gather to feed, are a major means of spreading disease.” “The costs of going solo may be particularly high for sick animals especially if they rely on their healthy groupmates to help them find food or avoid predators. ![]() “The recent pandemic years of isolating and quarantining have shown us that social distancing to avoid getting sick can also have detrimental aspects for group living animals,” said Langager, whose research interests are social behavior and disease ecology. In particular, the study found, they want to eat together with their flock. Unlike other social animals who passively or actively isolate themselves when sick, this gregarious backyard bird species gravitates toward healthy flock mates when they are sick, even more so than healthy birds do. student in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, uncovered a surprising result. A new study of house finches led by Marissa Langager, a Ph.D. Social distancing when sick has become second nature to many of us in the past few years, but some sick animals appear to take a different approach. ![]()
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