Scientists have discovered that mice are able to "resuscitate" their unconscious "relatives." To do this, the rodents push, bite and pull the tongues of their "comrades" to free their airways. This is stated in a study published in the journal Nature Communications. published in the journal Science.
In a series of experiments, scientists observed the behavior of laboratory mice that were placed with their immobile "relatives" under anesthesia.
Scientists found that when encountering a familiar unconscious animal, mice displayed “very distinct behaviors.” They typically resorted to mild measures, such as sniffing, to aggressive ones, including biting and pulling out the other creature’s tongue, similar to attempts to clear its airways.
The rodents stopped trying to "resuscitate" the other mouse when its activity resumed.
However, this behavior was rare if the other mouse was active or asleep. The researchers observed that the mice's reaction to the unconscious animal was more pronounced if the animals were familiar.
During the 13-minute observation, the rodents spent an average of more than 47% of their time interacting with their unconscious “relatives.” At the same time, they were only interested in other animals 5,8% of the time, if they were active.
In all cases of "resuscitation" of rodents, scientists saw actions aimed at the mouth or tongue. In another 50% of cases, mice managed to pull the tongue of another animal out of its mouth.
In another text, 80% of animals successfully removed a foreign object from the mouth of an unconscious mouse.
Moreover, scientists noticed that the rodents' efforts affected the condition of the "sick" ones - after waking up, animals that were helped by their "relatives" regained their ability to walk faster than those that regained consciousness on their own.
In addition, the researchers have identified the driving force behind this “help” in rodents. They believe that the source of the attempts to “resuscitate” other animals are neurons that release oxytocin in the amygdala and hypothalamus of the brain.
“Our findings […] suggest that animals exhibit a survival-like response to emergencies, and that helping unresponsive group members may be an innate behavior widespread among social animals. Such behavior likely plays a role in enhancing group cohesion and survival,” – the authors of the study explain.
Scientists note that there is anecdotal evidence that similar behavior may be common across the animal kingdom, including elephants, chimpanzees, and dolphins. While such breathing patterns resemble human responses to emergencies, their true nature in animals is difficult to determine.
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