Budgie see, budgie yawn

In 2012, a team led by Andrew C. Gallup (now at State University of New York at Oneonta) described observational evidence of contagious yawning in flocks of Melopsittacus undulatus budgerigars, or budgies. It was the first report of contagious yawning in a non-primate species in a natural context. Gallup’s laboratory has now followed up with an experimental study showing that a budgie will yawn in response to seeing another budgie yawn, whether the bird is in the next cage or on a video screen.

Lab Anim. (NY) 44, 249 (2015).

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