The smell of hunger
- When individuals exchange helpful acts reciprocally, increasing the benefit of the receiver can enhance its propensity to return a favour, as pay-offs are typically correlated in iterated interactions. Therefore, reciprocally cooperating animals should consider the relative benefit for the receiver when deciding to help a conspecific. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) exchange food reciprocally and thereby take into account both the cost of helping and the potential benefit to the receiver. By using a variant of the sequential iterated prisoner's dilemma paradigm, we show that rats may determine the need of another individual by olfactory cues alone. In an experimental food-exchange task, test subjects were provided with odour cues from hungry or satiated conspecifics located in a different room. Our results show that wild-type Norway rats provide help to a stooge quicker when they receive odour cues from a hungry rather than from a satiated conspecific. Using chemical analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), weWhen individuals exchange helpful acts reciprocally, increasing the benefit of the receiver can enhance its propensity to return a favour, as pay-offs are typically correlated in iterated interactions. Therefore, reciprocally cooperating animals should consider the relative benefit for the receiver when deciding to help a conspecific. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) exchange food reciprocally and thereby take into account both the cost of helping and the potential benefit to the receiver. By using a variant of the sequential iterated prisoner's dilemma paradigm, we show that rats may determine the need of another individual by olfactory cues alone. In an experimental food-exchange task, test subjects were provided with odour cues from hungry or satiated conspecifics located in a different room. Our results show that wild-type Norway rats provide help to a stooge quicker when they receive odour cues from a hungry rather than from a satiated conspecific. Using chemical analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we identify seven volatile organic compounds that differ in their abundance between hungry and satiated rats. Combined, this "smell of hunger" can apparently serve as a reliable cue of need in reciprocal cooperation, which supports the hypothesis of honest signalling.…
Author details: | Karin SchneebergerORCiDGND, Gregory RöderORCiD, Michael TaborskyORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000628 |
ISSN: | 1544-9173 |
ISSN: | 1545-7885 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32208414 |
Title of parent work (English): | PLoS biology |
Subtitle (English): | Norway rats provision social partners based on odour cues of need |
Publisher: | PLoS |
Place of publishing: | San Fransisco |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2020/03/24 |
Publication year: | 2020 |
Release date: | 2023/10/20 |
Volume: | 18 |
Issue: | 3 |
Article number: | e3000628 |
Number of pages: | 13 |
Funding institution: | Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)Swiss National Science Foundation; (SNSF) [31003A_156152, 31003A_176174] |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
DOAJ gelistet | |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |