Behavioural plasticity and the anthropause: an urban bird becomes less aggressive

Walters, Marlene; Diamant, Eleanor S.; Wong, Felisha; Cen, Christina; Yeh, Pamela J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.02.005

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Entering into COVID-19 lockdowns and reopenings, contrasting shifts in human activity—one increasing human activity and one decreasing human activity—led to contrasting fitness consequences reflecting this shift in the landscape of fear: great tits ( Parus major ) in an area with lower human activity had higher reproductive output than that with higher human activity [ 45 ]. However, there was no evidence for increased fitness by means of increased nestling condition and nest success when comparing 2021 and pre-pandemic 2019 breeding seasons in this dark-eyed junco population [ 25 ]. Additionally, there were no changes in aggressive interactions in the population following reopenings in 2022 and pre-pandemic 2019 breeding seasons [ 25 ], suggesting that fear response is not a by-product of shifting behavioural strategies due to a different socioecological context or due to indirect effects on predator density during the anthropause.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there was no evidence for increased fitness by means of increased nestling condition and nest success when comparing 2021 and pre-pandemic 2019 breeding seasons in this dark-eyed junco population [ 25 ]. Additionally, there were no changes in aggressive interactions in the population following reopenings in 2022 and pre-pandemic 2019 breeding seasons [ 25 ], suggesting that fear response is not a by-product of shifting behavioural strategies due to a different socioecological context or due to indirect effects on predator density during the anthropause. Urban song rapidly shifted during San Francisco's lockdowns in a related species (white-crowned sparrows) potentially because there was a clear communicative signal being interrupted by urban stressors [ 2 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each survey lasted two minutes and all individuals, vehicles, and dogs crossing the observer's eyeline were counted. Campus closures caused human activity to be approximately 7× lower than ‘normal' in 2021 [ 25 ], and therefore even lower during 2020 at the height of Los Angeles lockdowns and UCLA campus restrictions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban birds become less fearful following COVID-19 reopenings

Diamant,

MacGregor-Fors,

Blumstein

et al. 2023

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many people around the world stayed home, drastically altering human activity in cities. This exceptional moment provided researchers the opportunity to test how urban animals respond to human disturbance, in some cases testing fundamental questions on the mechanistic impact of urban behaviours on animal behaviour. However, at the end of this ‘anthropause', human activity returned to cities. How might each of these strong shifts affect wildlife in the short and long term? We focused on fear response, a trait essential to tolerating urban life. We measured flight initiation distance—at both individual and population levels—for an urban bird before, during and after the anthropause to examine if birds experienced longer-term changes after a year and a half of lowered human presence. Dark-eyed juncos did not change fear levels during the anthropause, but they became drastically less fearful afterwards. These surprising and counterintuitive findings, made possible by following the behaviour of individuals over time, has led to a novel understanding that fear response can be driven by plasticity, yet not habituation-like processes. The pandemic-caused changes in human activity have shown that there is great complexity in how humans modify a behavioural trait fundamental to urban tolerance in animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Urban birds become less fearful following COVID-19 reopenings

Diamant,

MacGregor-Fors,

Blumstein

et al. 2023

Proc. R. Soc. B.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Very few scientific publications and newspaper articles focus on catastrophic events and their effects on urban wildlife

Walters,

Cen,

Lung

et al. 2023

Urban Ecosyst

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The COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life and disrupted human activity in urban centers all over the world. Stay-at-home orders emptied urban spaces, removing or decreasing stressors on urban wildlife associated with human presence. Anecdotal observations of unusual urban wildlife behavior spread virally across social media, but some of these reports were proven false or fabricated. Here we examined both scientific publications and local newspapers to understand how extensively urban catastrophes are covered with respect to their effects on wildlife. We read all article titles from January 1980–June 2023 in 100 high impact journals in biology to determine if prior research exists that could inform our understanding of this phenomenon. Additionally, we used a keyword search to find scientific journal articles about wildlife responses during events in which large-scale evacuations of urban environments occurred. We found 37 scientific articles on this topic, with 13 of those published in the highest impact biology journals. The majority of publications identified (70%) were about wildlife responses to the COVID-19 public health response. Finally, we searched local newspapers in areas where hurricanes struck urban centers. We found 25 newspaper articles reporting on wildlife in relation to urban natural disasters. These were typically anecdotes, but nearly always consulted a credible, expert source. Ultimately, more research focused on urban areas before and after catastrophic or sudden changes will allow biologists to develop a baseline expectation for urban wildlife behavior in the absence of humans.

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