The Research Result of National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica Has Been Published on Nature Communication: The Revelation from Taiwan Yuhina for a Prosperous Future with the Great Perspective

The climate change might lead to the severe living environments and thus threaten all the existing species on the planet. How will the creatures respond to it? Should we struggle through it or get ahead of the others for survival? According to the recent research results from the four-year teamwork of National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, the analysis using Game Theory has already proved it true that Taiwan Yuhina have developed their very own strategy of reproduction to eliminate the individual conflicts in order to go through the severe living environment with more offspring successfully. To be more specific, their research also shows the value of the ancient Art of War in Chinese history.

The research team led by Professor Hsiao-Wei Yuan from NTU Department of Forestry and Resource Conservation and the assistant researcher, Dr. Sheng-Feng Shen, from the center of biodiversity in Academia Sinica has been working on the research project of Taiwan Yuhina . The analysis using Game Theory presents that Taiwan Yuhina have developed their very own strategy of reproduction to eliminate the individual conflicts in order to go through the severe living environment with more offspring successfully. Their research also shows the value of the Art of War in the ancient Chinese history. It also provides an innovative perspective to the way of thinking for all kinds of species under the situation of the global climate change. Their outstanding discovery has just been published on the international journal, Nature Communications. View the online article on this website: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.html, Shen, S.-F*., S. L. Vehrencamp, R. A. Johnstone, H.- C. Chen, S.-F. Chan, W.-Y. Liao, K.-Y. Lin and H.-W. Yuan*. Unfavorable environment limits social conflict in Yuhina brunneiceps.

According to Professor Hsiao-Wei Yuan’s research experience of working on the Taiwan Yuhina brunneiceps, this species is the very authentic kind in Taiwan, active in the medium altitude mountains in Taiwan only, making them the very unique species in the world. To be noted, there’s a very unique social behavior of Taiwan Yuhina brummeiceps, reproduction using the same net for the survival competition. Also, they could have their teamwork, sharing the same net to build, to hatch, and to take care of the youngsters as well. Lesser than 20 kinds of bird species can do that kind of strategy for survival needs among a million kinds of species in the world. The weather condition in the medium altitude mountains in Taiwan provides a severe living environment for Taiwan Yuhina brunneiceps with the rain season, low temperature, and the heavy rain during the typhoon season. But meanwhile, this particular environment also provides the researchers an excellent opportunity to get to understand how the severe weather condition could affect the social behavior of Taiwan Yuhina brunneiceps.

After the 85-day videotaping of how the Taiwan Yuhina brunneiceps hatch their eggs with the collection of 37 nests, the research team has successfully found that Taiwan Yuhina brunneiceps do not tend to compete against one another for reproduction while the weather condition gets severe. Instead of that, they have developed a very unique social behavior of teamwork by sharing the same nest to hatch with lesser eggs and to raise their offspring. Most important of all, lesser young birds get killed because of the competition among the parents along with the teamwork in the same nest. And it helps for the youngsters to grow up and leave their original nests successfully.

During 2004 to 2007, The NTU research team worked on their project on the farm in Nantou by using the combination of the conventional telescope and the innovative RFID system for a better observation and tracks. The researchers proved it true that the concept of The Art of War in the ancient Chinese history can be practiced on the survival needs in a severe living environment by developing the pattern from the Game Theory. That is to say, animals are able to develop a team-working survival pattern even when it is in the severe environment instead of competing against one another for survival. In other words, we human beings can thus learn the lesson of creating the best benefits in the society by having the teamwork well, especially when it is the difficult time. The primary author, Dr. Dr. Sheng-Feng Shen, from the center of biodiversity in Academia Sinica, pointed out that the severe living environment actually provides a great opportunity of improving the teamwork for the ideal survival needs under the condition of focusing on the individual values as well. And the NTU team believes that the same pattern can definitely be practiced in the human societies.

Scientists have been doing their efforts trying to observe and to figure out how climate change might affect we human beings on the planet. Andthe NTU team’s outstanding discovery has just been published on the international scientific journal, Nature Communications.