Getting divorced is a common and unpleasant experience for many people, but new research shows a European songbird has its own version of heading to splitsville.
The new study reveals that some avian couples appear to call it quits at the end of their breeding season. The divorcees appear to go their separate ways while other couples stick together over the winter months so they can breed together again in the spring.
While the findings may be unsurprising to anyone who's been through a breakup, it does show that socialization matters for more than just humans.
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"I think more and more we are really understanding the extent to which social behavior influences animals' lives," says Adelaide Abraham, a PhD student at the University of Oxford and first author of the study. "It's