Yawning Birds
Many vertebrates yawn – but only humans, dogs, chimps and a species of rodent find yawns contagious. Now we can add budgies to the list. Researchers placed budgies in adjacent cages, either with a barrier between them or with nothing obstructing their view. When the birds could see each other, they were around three times as likely to yawn within five minutes of a yawn from their neighbour. Videos of budgies yawning also caused them to follow suit. Contagious yawning is linked with empathetic processes, according to researchers, so the finding suggests social non-mammals may have basic forms of empathy.