A taste for novelty in invading house sparrows, Passer domesticus

Martin, Lynn B.; Fitzgerald, Lisa A.

doi:10.1093/beheco/ari044

Cited by 181 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Indeed, it is unclear whether the ability of a species to combat or prevent one disease would be representative of its ability to fight all diseases. Lastly, one should recognize that prophylactic behavioral defenses, such as responsiveness to novel foods, environments, and/or objects (Martin and Fitzgerald 2005), may be important first lines of defense in some cases. Ultimately, such a multi-tiered approach will lead us to a robust, evolutionary understanding of the vertebrate immune system.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows

2006

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The evidence for a relationship between life history and immune defense is equivocal, although the basic premise is intuitively appealing: animals that live short lives and reproduce early and rapidly should not waste resources on defenses they might never use. One possible reason for a lack of strong support for this hypothesis could be the inherent complexity of the vertebrate immune system. Indeed, different components of the vertebrate immune system vary in their relative costs and benefits, and therefore only some defenses may complement variation in species' life history. To address this hypothesis, we compared multiple types of immune activity between two populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) with distinct life histories, one from Colon, Panama, which lay small clutches over an extended breeding season (i.e., slow-living) and the other from Princeton, New Jersey, which lay larger clutches in a smaller window of time (i.e., fast-living). We expected (a) that more costly types of immune defenses would be stronger in the slow-living sparrows and (2) that the slow-living sparrows would show a greater increase in whole-body energy expenditure after immune challenge compared to their fast-living counterparts. We found that secondary antibody response to a novel antigen was more rapid and energetic investment in immune activity was greater in slow-living sparrows. However, cellmediated immune activity was more robust in fast-living sparrows, and other measures of defense were not different between populations. These results provide partial support for a relationship between life history and immune defense in this species, but they also indicate that this relationship is not clear-cut. Further study is necessary to identify the influence of other factors, particular pathogen environment during development, on the architecture of the immune system of wild animals.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows

2006

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“…To quantify the problemsolving success of the groups, we counted (i) the total number of wells opened in the group, (ii) the latency to open the first well in the group, and (iii) the individuals' latency to first feeding. To quantify neophobia, we subtracted each individual's latency in the control test from its latency in the neophobia test (11). Neophobia of the group was then defined as the neophobia of the first individual that visited the feeder.…”

Section: Data Processing and Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ability to solve such problems, e.g., by innovating novel behaviors or using existing behavior in a novel way, may thus be an important determinant of adaptability, especially in generalist species (7)(8)(9) or populations colonizing new habitats (10,11). When facing novel tasks, group members might be at an advantage compared with solitary individuals: they may cooperate to solve the problem (12,13), or in uncooperative situations they may use the solutions invented by members of their group.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Larger groups are more successful in innovative problem solving in house sparrows

Liker

Bókony²

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

173

139

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Group living offers well-known benefits to animals, such as better predator avoidance and increased foraging success. An important additional, but so far neglected, advantage is that groups may cope more effectively with unfamiliar situations through faster innovations of new solutions by some group members. We tested this hypothesis experimentally by presenting a new foraging task of opening a familiar feeder in an unfamiliar way to house sparrows in small and large groups (2 versus 6 birds). Group size had strong effects on problem solving: sparrows performed 4 times more and 11 times faster openings in large than in small groups, and all members of large groups profited by getting food sooner (7 times on average). Independently from group size, urban groups were more successful than rural groups. The disproportionately higher success in large groups was not a mere consequence of higher number of attempts, but was also related to a higher effectiveness of problem solving (3 times higher proportion of successful birds). The analyses of the birds' behavior suggest that the latter was not explained by either reduced investment in antipredator vigilance or reduced neophobia in large groups. Instead, larger groups may contain more diverse individuals with different skills and experiences, which may increase the chance of solving the task by some group members. Increased success in problem solving may promote group living in animals and may help them to adapt quickly to new situations in rapidly-changing environments.effectiveness ͉ foraging ͉ group size ͉ innovation ͉ urbanization

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“…boldness, aggression, response to novelty) may be especially important in novel environments [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Different selection pressures along a range expansion could select for different levels of these traits between the site of introduction and the edge of the range.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploratory behaviour and stressor hyper-responsiveness facilitate range expansion of an introduced songbird

2012

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Global anthropogenic changes are occurring at an unprecedented rate; one change, human-facilitated introduction of species outside their native range, has had significant ecological and economic impacts. Surprisingly, what traits facilitate range expansions post-introduction is relatively unknown. This information could help predict future expansions of introduced species as well as native species shifting their ranges as climate conditions change. Here, we asked whether specific behavioural and physiological traits were important in the ongoing expansion of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) across Kenya. We predicted that birds at the site of initial introduction (Mombasa, introduced approx. 1950) would behave and regulate corticosterone, a stress hormone, differently than birds at the range edge (Kakamega, approx. 885 km from Mombasa; colonized within the last 5 years). Specifically, we predicted greater exploratory behaviour and stronger corticosterone response to stressors in birds at the range edge, which may facilitate the identification, resolution and memory of stressors. Indeed, we found that distance from Mombasa (a proxy for population age) was a strong predictor of both exploratory behaviour and corticosterone release in response to restraint (but only while birds were breeding). These results suggest that certain behavioural and neuroendocrine traits may influence the ability of species to colonize novel habitats.

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A taste for novelty in invading house sparrows, Passer domesticus

Cited by 181 publications

References 46 publications

Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows

Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows

Larger groups are more successful in innovative problem solving in house sparrows

Exploratory behaviour and stressor hyper-responsiveness facilitate range expansion of an introduced songbird

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