14 DAY TRIAL // For quite some time now, behavior experts have suspected that people who are exposed to too many choices finally end up selecting a thing they are familiar with, especially if money is involved. This is more than obvious in restaurants with very large menus, where they tend to order only the thing they know from the list, rather than experimenting with something new. The main reason for this is that the vast array of options makes individuals afraid that they might opt for something that they wouldn't like. Now, new studies show that this trait is also valid for countless animal species as well.
“This is a major leap forward in our understanding of the way in which animals interact with their environment. Our computer models show the way in which neural networks operate in different environments. They have made it possible for us to see how different species make decisions, based on what's happening – or in this case, which foods are available – around them,” the lead researcher on the new find, Dr Colin Tosh, a scientist at the University of Leeds Faculty of Biological Sciences, explained.
Basically, the team's research was focused on finding the origin of specialization in the animal kingdom, seeing how evolution made certain species eat only certain types of food. Evolutionary biologists theorized in the early 1990s that this specialization might have occurred on account of information overload, a trait that was characteristic to human and animals alike. “There are several hypotheses to explain specialization: one suggests that animals adapt to eat certain foods and this prevents them from eating other types of food,” Tosh added.
“For example, cows have evolved flat teeth, which allow them to chew grass but they are unable to efficiently process meat. However, the problem with these hypotheses is that they don't apply across the board. Some species – such as many plant eating insects – have evolved to specialize even though there are many other available foods they could eat perfectly well,” the expert went on to say.
“A good example of a struggling specialist is the giant panda, which relies on high mountain bamboo. In understanding how neural processes work, we may be able to gain an insight into how future environmental conditions – such as the dying out of particular types of plants – may affect a range of different animal species that utilize them for food,” Tosh concluded.