‘Love hormone’ guides birds' food-sharing

‘Love hormone’ guides

birds' food-sharing

Feeding birds with a ‘love hormone’ (mesotocin) similar to one found in humans (oxytocin), makes them more generous to their friends. Dr Juan Duque, a neuroscientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his colleagues investigated the pinyon jay – a highly social bird related to crows. The scientists wanted to establish if mesotocin, like its human equivalent, had a role in guiding social behaviour. They designed experiments in which jays were given the option to feed themselves and also their fellow birds in neighbouring cages with tasty mealworms. Next, the researchers administered solutions containing very high concentrations of the bird ‘love hormone’ into the noses of their jay subjects and then watched how it affected their interactions with each other. They found that the mesotocin boost was enough to make the birds more generous, as evidenced by their increased willingness to share food.