"Tit for Tat" Norway Rats Trade Favors and Commodities
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 2 Feb 2018
Grooming rats. Since rats are nocturnal, the video was shot with a night vision device.
Humans commonly trade different commodities, which is considered a core competence of our species. However, this capacity is not exclusively human as Norway rats exchange different commodities, too. They strictly follow the principle “tit for tat” – even when paying with different currencies, such as grooming or food provisioning.
Credit: © Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern