Credits: Social Media
Natures own approach to longevity can teach us a lot about living longer
Scientists say we can learn a lot from the animal kingdom, with researchers paying special attention to how social interactions affect longevity in a new study from the University of Oxford.
Humans are by far the most evolved creatures on the planet, and yet, the animal kingdom outdoes us time and time again. Some lizards have iron-tipped teeth, hummingbirds can fly backward, and spider silk is used to stitch up injuries.
Social animals live longer
A recent piece of research in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B looked into 152 animal species across 13 different classes in the hopes of better understanding the correlation between animal sociability and longevity.
Though previous studies had explored the same topic, largely in specific groups like mammals, the Oxford University research was the first to compare data from across different groups.
To start, they sorted the animals into five distinct groups:
- Solitary animals like cheetahs, tigers, and tortoises
- Gregarious animals like wildebeest and zebras form loose groups
- Communal animals like birds sometimes share the same space
- Colonial creatures such as insects are constantly living as one
- Highly sociable animals with complex social structures like elephants, primates, and flamingos
Choosing to sort the animals as such allowed the researchers to identify patterns that might have otherwise been missed. Not only did they find that more sociable animals lived longer, but they also exhibited longer durations of reproductive windows.”
It makes sense too, for when you consider meerkats, who live in large groups, share resources, and help take care of young, it’s not surprising that they would live longer than a solitary tiger.
With humans so obsessed with living a longer life, perhaps the answer we’ve all been looking for is to get off our phones, ditch the trendy new supplement, and form long-lasting communities.
Not being sociable has its positives
Outside of sociability and its connection to a longer life, the researchers further noticed a trend in population resilience. Though sociable groups showed greater resistance to environmental disturbances, they struggled to take advantage of changing landscapes in the same way less-sociable animals did.
Oxford University’s findings are particularly poignant given the recent pandemic we have all gone through. More than ever we recognise the importance of social relationships.
Sociality is a fundamental aspect of many animals. However, we still lack cross-taxonomic evidence of the fitness costs and benefits of being social,” said lead author Rob Salguero-G�mez. “Here, by using an unprecedented number of animal species this work has demonstrated that species that are more social (most monkeys, humans, elephants, flamingos, and parrots) display longer life spans and reproductive windows than more solitary species (some fish, reptiles, and some insects).”
In a post-COVID era, where the impacts of isolation have been quite tangible to humans (a highly social species), the research demonstrates that, across a comparative lens, being more social is associated with some tangible benefits,” he added.
