Norway rats trade different commodities
Researchers of the University of Bern have shown for the first time in an experiment that also non-human animals exchange different kind of favours. Humans commonly trade different commodities, which is considered a core competence of our species. However, this capacity is not exclusively human as Norway rats exchange different commodities, too. They strictly follow the principle "tit for tat" – even when paying with different currencies, such as grooming or food provisioning.
[...] In an experimental study, Manon Schweinfurth and Michael Taborsky from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the University of Bern tested whether common Norway rats engage in reciprocal trading of two different forms of help, i.e. allogrooming and food provisioning. Their test rats experienced a partner either cooperating or non-cooperating in one of the two commodities. To induce allogrooming, the researchers applied saltwater on the test rats' neck, which is hardly accessible to self-grooming, so help by a partner is needed. To induce food provisioning, partner rats could pull food items towards the test rats. Afterwards, test rats had the opportunity to reciprocate favours by the alternative service, i.e. allogrooming the partner after receiving food from it, or donating food after having been allogroomed. The test rats groomed more often cooperating than non-cooperating food providers, and they donated food more often to partners that had heavily groomed them before. Apparently, they traded these two services among another according to the decision rules of direct reciprocity. «This result indicates that reciprocal trading among non-human animals may be much more widespread than currently assumed. It is not limited to large-brained species with advanced cognitive abilities», says Manon Schweinfurth.
Experimental evidence for reciprocity in allogrooming among wild-type Norway rats (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03841-3) (DX)
Reciprocal allogrooming among unrelated Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) is affected by previously received cooperative, affiliative and aggressive behaviours (DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2406-1) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @02:48PM (1 child)
Are Norway rats related to 5-dimensional white mice?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 05 2018, @07:04PM
Look, dude, a few million years is a really long time to wait for a question, so Jim got a bit bored, and he may have had something on the side ... but we don't talk about that, ok ?
My hypothesis is that the Norwegian rats understand Norwegian, or at just very smart at inferring the results that the guy in the lab coat wants to see, in order to keep getting fed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @03:12PM
We all know they don't really think their result only indicates their conclusions. It is so obvious that is lip service. Did they even try ruling out any other explanations? Just checked the first paper, no. Also, I see they weren't blinded and cherrypicked what they measured so there is no need to even guess further:
Why "except the anal region"? What will it take to stop this endless tidalwave of junk reports?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @03:22PM (1 child)
We think we're so special, at least the white folks do...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @04:11AM
Not people of european or far eastern bloodlines fault that they had full blown civilization in 500BC when the subsaharan africans were building mud huts and 2600 years later the subsaharans are still living in mud huts.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Grishnakh on Sunday February 04 2018, @04:21PM (7 children)
Proof again that the Scandinavians are better. Scandinavian people have the best societies on the planet with the highest quality of living (though in close competition with the Swiss), and even the rats in Scandinavia are highly intelligent.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:14PM (1 child)
They sure do make the best cuck sheds, I didn't know some of them had internet access now! I hope you have a good lock on its door, though, because when Jamal comes a-knockin' and your wife ain't around, he's going to muh-dikk any hole he can find, including yours.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:24PM
Hey, how fucking stupid are you going to get? No wonder you got rejected by slashdot...and yer mom.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:10PM (4 children)
Likely made in jest, but their is reason to believe that this would be exclusive to Scandinavian rats. Across many recorded and tested species, we find that the colder and the harsher a location's winter is, the more intelligent the species that inhabit it will be. Different subspecies of bird that are otherwise fairly indistinguishable, can be told apart by an IQ test.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday February 04 2018, @11:13PM (2 children)
Very interesting. But Scandinavia isn't really *that* cold (unless you go up to the very northern reaches, or worse, Svalbard). I wonder how smart Canadian and Siberian rats are.
As for humans in cold climates, this rule doesn't seem to work out that well. Canadians aren't doing too badly for themselves, but they're no Switzerland in terms of economic output (per capita) and quality of life. And Russia is *very* cold, but that place is pretty abysmal for quality-of-life and not all that great economically either; they're too mired in corruption and authoritarianism to have a decent economy. Meanwhile, Norway, Sweden, and Finland are fantastic places to live, and while Norway benefits a lot from oil/gas reserves, Sweden and Finland don't have that advantage and still do well.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday February 05 2018, @12:02AM
It used to be considerable colder. When I grew up a normal winter on the south coast would see temperatures around -15C reliably. The coldest winter we had -24C for a while. That wasn't so pleasant. We had to curtain off most of the house and focus the heating for the bedroom. I don't remember what dad did to prevent the water pipes from freezing. Anyway, these days a winter might not even see any freezing temperatures, or just marginally so.
Of course, go back ~10k years or so, and it was really cold, what with the tens/hundreds of meter of ice weighing down across all of Scandinavia.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Monday February 05 2018, @12:18PM
I never stated that cold climate leads to increased economic success. Indeed, the theory is that the reduced ability to succeed that a cold climate offers is what drives increased intelligence. While we can make the broad assumption that Scandinavian birds are smarter than their Equator living cousins, they will overall do worse than their kin due to the harshness of their environs.
Also, Canadians did not evolve for the Canadian climate.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 05 2018, @12:36AM
Aha!!! That 'splains how the Russian Agent Orange got elected: Global Warming dumbs the fauna**.
(large trollish persistent grin)
--
** time to burn some karma - even Musk knows burning is needed [soylentnews.org] from time to time.
With the latest FA submitted by aristarchus approved for publishing almost 2 week ago [soylentnews.org], it's getting boring lately here.
Even ethanol's trolling [soylentnews.org] is becoming lame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:14PM (2 children)
It's instinct folks.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Sunday February 04 2018, @10:36PM
In Soviet Norway, rats trade grooming futures - or something.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 05 2018, @12:40AM
The moment Norwegian Rats learn how to charge interest rate is the moment the Wall Street rats are solidly on their path to extinction.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:30PM (2 children)
Norway rats? Dont think I ever heard them called that before -- we just call them rats I guess. That said are we sure it is some kind of rat altruism and them not just bartering for sex like the slightly smarter chimps? Or does the "allogrooming" come with a happyending?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @12:43AM
Tomato/tomahto.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday February 05 2018, @07:02AM
Norway rats are the big blunt-nosed brown rats that live in/around sewers, riverbanks, and city streets in most of the world. (That's as opposed to the roof/house rats, which are smaller and look like over-sized mice.)