Why We Cheat: Bird Mating Habits Used To Explain Infidelity In New Study

Scientists are finding out a little more about the birds and the bees -- and surprisingly, infidelity -- by studying the mating habits of our feathered friends.

In an attempt to figure out what makes birds cheat, evolutionary ecologists at North Carolina State University and Columbia University reviewed over 400 studies about the separation tendencies of more than 200 species of birds from around the world.

Their findings, reported in the science journal PLoS One on Thursday, suggest that birds are more inclined to seek out new partners when climate conditions become unpredictable or variable.

The likely reason? The researchers found that birds, regardless of whether they're male or female, seek out diverse genes for their young when they're uncertain of what the future may bring. Cheating improves a bird's chances of combining their genes with other genes best suited for whatever environment their chicks may be born into.

The flighty findings could provide us with more insight into what makes human beings stray, said Carlos Botero, one of the study's lead researchers.

“Humans have been able to transform the environment to such a level so that basic processes like rainfall and temperature affect us very little,” Botero told Discovery.com. But humans have considerably less control over changes in the stock market or other outside economic forces -- the human equivalent of an unpredictable climate, as Discovery.com points out.

“You might think this is the guy of your dreams based on the world you think is occurring,” Botero told the site. “But if the world changes, your idea might change, too.”

It's not the first time scientists have studied infidelity among animals. In 2004, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience found that there is a "monogamy gene" in prairie voles that is less prevalent in its close cousin, the meadow vole. When meadow voles were injected with the gene, called the "vasopressin receptor," the usually promiscuous animals exhibited a greater attachment to their mates.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that meadow voles have higher levels of the "monogamy gene." That is incorrect; prairie voles have higher levels of the gene.

Comments

[Sheila Medenwald]

10:21 PM on 02/21/2012

This is for the birds, or ill give you the bird.

[windmillw]

07:35 PM on 02/21/2012

Oh no, not according to a poem my Mom clipped from some woman's magazine in the 50's and memorized: Sorry - I never knew the author's name and I can't find it on the internet. I'll type all I remember on a page on our website. Here's the beginning: "I simply can't stand this untidy tree, was the slogan of neat Mrs. Phoebe McGee; And briskly each day and long into each night, she straightened up rose buds that weren't just hanging right; And soon she was finding it terribly urgent to scrub every knot hole with knot hole detergent..." See? It's cute. Click to go to link http://www.windmillworks.com/id155.html (lt's at top of page)

[danno1400i]

07:15 PM on 02/21/2012

and our tax dollars are paying for this? WTF............. AMERICA

[laidbackdude679]

07:15 PM on 02/21/2012

let me guess.....obama has funded this ignorant research

[mcinnisja]

06:59 PM on 02/21/2012

What kind of mind can even conceive of infidelity among birds?

[mds308]

05:45 PM on 02/21/2012

I flip this story two birds up.

[drb107]

05:44 PM on 02/21/2012

I like the ideal of spreading it around, old fashion ideals have run their course, just don't flaunt it in front of your partner and enjoy yourself, you only spin around this planet one lifetime.

[Swimdude]

05:27 PM on 02/21/2012

I thought My Wife and I had Mated for Life Just Like Swans. However, One Day I came home Early and Found my Wife in Bed with a Duck. My wife explained that I had become and Ugly Duck and that this New Duck was her New Swan.

The End!

[mcinnisja]

07:00 PM on 02/21/2012

What's wrong with your "Shift" key?

[Swimdude]

10:49 PM on 02/21/2012

I am not sure what you mean. I will just assume I am wrong and drop it....

[LivelyLexie]

05:17 PM on 02/21/2012

So you cheat cause you're acting like an animal? Sounds about right.

[wakohnen]

03:14 PM on 02/21/2012

When birds start getting married then it will be considered cheating.

[wakohnen]

03:12 PM on 02/21/2012

Fall will be here again in 9 months, time to find a new mate, preferably one with a lot of hair to keep my offspring warm next winter.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

01:43 PM on 02/21/2012

Why of course birds can tell us all about our sex lives.

After all, they wouldn't be allowed to talk about "the birds and the bees" if it wasn't true. Michelle Bachmann told me so.

[backinblack42]

04:19 PM on 02/21/2012

Really? Todays date is 2/21/2012.

[Jeff McConnell]

06:49 PM on 02/21/2012

Why are you so obsessed with Michelle Bachmann?

[CSNC]

11:34 PM on 02/20/2012

"Can Birds' Sex Lives Explain Why We Cheat?"

There is no need for birds... They cheat because sex stops (#1) or becomes incredibly boring (a very distant #2).

H

[Fenrir Lokison]

07:07 PM on 02/20/2012

Seriously? Does it really take birds for us to understand ourselves? I don't need a bird and here are some of the following reasons why we cheat...

1) Some are lustful creatures who's sexual desires can't be slated by one person.
2) Some have psychological issues that affect their control of their sexual natures.
3) For some it is a game.
4) For others it is a tool for revenge and/or control.
5) Others are weak willed and are easily lead astray.
6) Some believe there is not such thing as monogamy.
7) Others are just so full of themselves that everyone should be used for their own pleasure.
8) Some are adventures who don't think twice about how their adventures might help others.
9) Some wish to tempt themselves and fall.
10) Some find out that they are truly unable to commit.

Humankind and their ways is not hard to understand and look at who we are and our history as a species. While our actions may not be predictable always, it is understandable.

[Flying Sparkz1]

12:42 PM on 02/20/2012

I'm sorry, birds don't cheat. They behave. Studying animal behavior is important and necessary in understanding the animals and the environment. But seriously, trying to correlate the behavior of birds in the wild to human behavior in society? It seems especially silly since monogamy is a moral code imposed by society to restrict human behavior. Successful males throughout history have been unrestricted in the number of females the could breed with. It appears there is little doubt that a genetic drive to diversify DNA prompts this behavior. I don't understand studying animal behavior to explain human morality.

[mxl31]

09:59 AM on 02/22/2012

Maybe you missed the lecture on how human animals are genetically linked with other creatures. Turns out dogs are better communicators than many humans. Perhaps it doesn't matter why that is, to the Sunday school set. I wish that humans were as loyal as most birds. I think people study birds because they are so unusually loyal to their mates. Unlike humans.