The study, published today in Science, shows environmental factors exert a key influence on how foraging human populations and non-human species behave, despite their very different backgrounds.

The team of international researchers analysed data from more than 300 locations around the world, observing the behaviours of foraging human populations alongside other mammal and bird species living in the same place. Their findings show that for almost all behaviours, 14 of the 15 investigated, humans were more likely to behave similarly to the majority of other non-human species living in the same place than those elsewhere.

The study has had some great media coverage and more information can be found through the links below.

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/55673481

Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9150557/Behaviour-Hunter-gatherer-humans-mirror-mammals-birds-living-areas-study-finds.html

Sueddeutsche: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/tiere-verhalten-1.5176152

Deutschlandfunk: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/evolution-gemeinsame-umwelt-von-mensch-und-tier-fuehrt-zu.676.de.html?dram:article_id=490890

El Pais: https://elpais.com/ciencia/2021-01-14/los-humanos-se-comportan-como-sus-vecinos-animales.html

La Vanguardia: https://www.lavanguardia.com/ciencia/20210115/6182655/parecemos-mas-animales-vecinos-pensamos.html

‘Local convergence of behavior across species’, by Toman Barsbai, Dieter Lukas and Andreas Pondorfer in Science