Birds in cities are more afraid of women than men

Walking through a park and having a pigeon, a parrot and a sparrow fly away when we approach is quite an everyday occurrence, since they see us as a threat, probably due to our large size in comparison. But the truth is that we now know that this gesture It is more common when the human approaching is a womanas if it were a genre that scared him more.

They have investigated it. This curiosity has been the conclusion reached by a published scientific study in British Ecological Society in which it is noted that birds escape sooner when women approach than when men approach. And to get here, the research team did not rely on a few observations, but designed an experiment that grouped 2,701 observations across five European countries and 37 different urban species.

The results. If we look at specific figures, it has been seen that when the person approaching the birds is a woman, the flight distance is approximately one meter greater than when a man approaches.

And here the question we can ask ourselves is whether this is a simple coincidence, but here the researchers have made it clear that this is not the case, since the conclusion that birds distinguish the sex of the human observer is statistically solid. And to ensure this accuracy, the researchers controlled multiple variables during the approaches, including initial distance, the size of the bird school, and surrounding tree cover.

Because? Although the pattern of behavior is undeniable, the exact causes remain largely a mystery, with researchers pointing to a lack of a concrete explanatory mechanism. The theories that are mainly pointed out are related to different factors, such as differences in body shape between the woman and the mobile phone or even movement, since the way of walking can be a warning signal for animals.

Furthermore, it is proposed that the smell that each of the genders has is a possible hypothesis to explain this anticipated flight reaction. But the truth is still a great mystery.

Survival in evolution. The fact that birds pay so much attention to humans makes sense if we take into account the enormous evolutionary pressure that cities exert, since in a very short time birds have had to adapt to our presence and above all to the pressure of having us literally on top of them in part of their environment. And little by little we are learning that not all human beings have the same effect on them.

Images | wirestock at Magnific ArthurHidden on Magnific

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