It’s true! Yawning is contagious for lions as well
A new South African
study confirms that yawning is just as contagious for lions as it is for
humans.
We’ve all been there – seeing someone yawn and immediately yawning ourselves. In fact, yawning is so contagious that even a video of someone yawning can trigger the action in yourself. Now, a new South African study has confirmed that yawning is contagious for lions as well.
According to the study, as shared by National Geographic, lions were 11 times more likely to copy the actions of the individual that yawned first. The study details how lions tend to mimic each other’s yawns and subsequent behaviour.
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This means that lions are prone to mimic the actions of the pride. The study explains that if one lion yawned, other lions who had seen the action are likely to yawn as well. But, this doesn’t just happen with yawning. If a lion gets up and moves to another spot, other lions are likely to follow them.
Elisabetta Palagi, an ethologist at the University of
Pisa in Pisa, Italy and her colleagues made the discovery after filming 19
lions in two prides living at Makalali Game Reserve. After five months of
research, results revealed the likelihood of yawning was more than 139 times
higher if a lion had just seen a pride member yawning compared with not seeing
the action.
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The ethologist explains that spontaneous yawning was particularly frequent when the lions were relaxed and transitioning between sleeping and waking or vice versa.
In the report, the team explains that these actions support their hypothesis that in lions, as in humans, yawning increases blood flow and brain cooling - and likely alertness. The team adds that they believe that this synchronised behaviour enables the pride to work as a team and makes it easier to find food and spot threats to the group.
Image courtesy: Pixabay