"Mercedes has got just one "friend" in Theodore Manno's version of Facebook. With nearly 20 friends, Spider is much more popular.
Manno, from the department of biological sciences at Auburn University in Alabama, spent three weeks perched in 4-metre-high observation towers watching 65 Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus), including Lava Lamp and Mercedes. By logging interactions between the squirrels he was able to draw up a plan of the squirrels’ social network.
"Friendly interactions" were defined as instances when the squirrels kissed, sniffed, played or groomed each other.
Manno then generated a computer model of the network and looked for sustained companionships – pairs of squirrels that interacted more frequently than would be expected from just random associations.
Closely knit
It turned out that the entire colony of 65 ground squirrels was connected, on average, by three degrees of separation – meaning any two squirrels could be connected by three intermediate animals.
Popular individuals of similar age and reproductive status tended to interact with each other, leaving a few loners on the sidelines of the colony. Six squirrels were not sexually mature, and all six were on the margins of the network."
Read the full article here :
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13495-squirrel-facebook-shows-three-degrees-of-separation.html
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