Birds, like some humans, keep their friend circle small as they age

What's that saying about keeping your friends circle small? The birds get it.

In new research about birds, Friedman reports that birds like some humans, have fewer friends as they age - according to new research published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

But the reasons why are unclear.

The team behind the new bird research, led by Imperial College London, studied an isolated population of sparrows on the island of Lundy, in the Bristol Channel.

By mapping the ages and social networks of all the birds, they found that older sparrows do tend to have fewer friends, as with humans.

The reason could be that there is no ‘evolutionary pressure’ to do so: while friendliness helps younger birds survive and breed more successfully, the same isn’t true for older birds.

The research suggests a link between birds who prefer to be alone as they get older with loneliness as some older people might feel as they age.

Lead researcher Dr Julia Schroeder, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said, 'this evolutionary mechanism may also be at work in humans – it could be that older people are less inclined to new friends as they age. Combined with fewer same-age potential friends available, this could be a factor in the loneliness crisis among older people.'