Differences in measures of boldness even when underlying behavioral syndromes are present in two populations of the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Myers, Rachel E.; Hyman, Jeremy

doi:10.1007/s10164-016-0465-9

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Moreover, urban birds can take advantage of the predator release effect by gaining higher breeding success than their rural counterparts (Rebolo-Ifrán et al, in press), such that the heritabilities of the fear of humans (Carrete et al, 2016) and antipredator behavior (Bize et al, 2012) can subsequently reinforce the behavioral differences between urban and rural populations initially resulting from selection. Whatever the mechanism causing the decoupling between fear of humans and antipredator behaviors in urban individuals, our results-in line with those obtained by Myers and Hyman (2016)challenge previous interpretations of flight initiation distances (FID). While FID has been frequently used as an experimental measure of the response of individuals facing a predator (Díaz et al, 2013), our results suggest that FID actually measures their response toward humans which, in some but not in all cases (i.e., urban populations), correlates with responses to predators.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Carrete

Tella

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Behavioral studies are fundamental to understanding how animal populations face global change. Although much research has centered upon the idea that individuals can adaptively modify their behaviors to cope with environmental changes, recent evidence supports the existence of individual differences in suites of correlated behaviors. However, little is known about how selection can change these behavioral structures in populations subject to different environmental constraints. The colonization of urban environments by birds has been related to their inter-individual variability in their fear of humans, measured as their flight initiation distance to an approaching human, such that urban life would select for fearless individuals. This behavior has been demonstrated to be heritable and highly consistent throughout the adult lifespan of burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia). Here, we experimentally assessed, in field conditions, whether urban life involves changes in other behaviors such as exploration and antipredatory response through their correlation with fear of humans. Breeding urban birds were more fearless toward humans and were quicker to explore a new food resource and defend their nests from predators than their rural counterparts. However, while fear of humans positively correlated with exploration and antipredatory response in the rural population, it only correlated with exploration in the urban one. Predator release in urban environments could relax-and even counterselect-antipredator behaviors, thus dismantling the behavioral correlation existent in natural populations. Altogether, our results suggest that rural and urban animals may differ in some behavioral aspects, may be as a consequence of the selection processes acting during the colonization of urban areas as well as the different ecological environments encountered by individuals.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Carrete

Tella

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Humans in cities seldom pose direct threat to free‐living animals like birds (Clucas & Marzluff, ); thus, greater risk‐taking (e.g., reduced avoidance) toward humans can be advantageous in urban habitats. Reduced flight responses have been observed in many urban animals (Samia, Nakagawa, Nomura, Rangel, & Blumstein, ), including birds (Carrete & Tella, ; Møller et al, ; Myers & Hyman, ; Vincze et al, ), mammals (McCleery, ; Uchida, Suzuki, Shimamoto, Yanagawa, & Koizumi, ), and reptiles (Lapiedra, Chejanovski, & Kolbe, ; McGowan, Patel, Stroh, & Blumstein, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Risk‐taking toward humans is often suggested to correlate with other forms of risk‐taking behavior, such as aggressiveness (risk‐taking toward a conspecific opponent; Scales, Hyman, & Hughes, ; Myers & Hyman, ), neophobia and exploration (risk‐taking toward novel stimuli; Bókony, Kulcsár, Tóth, & Liker, ; Carrete & Tella, ), and anti‐predator behavior (risk‐taking toward non‐human predators; Bókony et al, ; Carrete & Tella, ; Myers & Hyman, ). Such phenotypic correlation across different situations is often called “behavioral syndrome” (Sih, Bell, & Johnson, ; Herczeg & Garamszegi, ; but see Dingemanse, Dochtermann, & Nakagawa, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Great tits take greater risk toward humans and sparrowhawks in urban habitats than in forests

et al. 2019

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Urban animals often take more risk toward humans than their non‐urban conspecifics do, but it is unclear how urbanization affects behavior toward non‐human predators. Responses to humans and non‐human predators may covary due to common mechanisms enforcing a phenotypic correlation. However, while increased tolerance toward humans may be advantageous for urban animals, reduced vigilance toward non‐human predators that can pose actual threat may be costly. Therefore, urban animals may benefit from showing specific responses to different threat levels, such as humans versus non‐human predators, or hostile versus non‐hostile humans. To test these alternatives, we compared responses (latencies to return to nest) of urban and forest‐breeding great tits (Parus major) to familiar hostile and unfamiliar humans as well as one of their common predators, the sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). We found that urban birds were more risk‐taking toward both humans and sparrowhawk than forest birds. However, responses to sparrowhawk did not correlate with responses to humans either within or across habitats. This suggests that higher risk‐taking of urban compared to forest‐dwelling great tits toward sparrowhawk may be threat‐specific response to lower predation risk rather than a spillover effect of increased tolerance to humans. Furthermore, birds responded similarly to unfamiliar and familiar (potentially dangerous) humans in both habitats, suggesting that great tits may not adjust their risk‐taking to the threat represented by individual humans. These findings indicate that urban birds may flexibly adjust their risk‐taking to certain, but not all, types of threat.

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“…However, apart from a handful of experiments with predator dummies (Seress et al, 2011) or playbacks of alarm calls (Myers and Hyman, 2016), the majority of empirical studies comparing anti-predator behavior of urban and rural populations have been conducted using humans as potential predators (reviewed by Samia et al, 2015). While humans might be perceived as potential predators, they usually do not represent a direct predation threat (Beale and Monaghan, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Urbanization Affect Predation of Bird Nests? A Meta-Analysis

et al. 2017

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Urbanization can affect interspecific interactions such as predator-prey relationships. Several hypotheses have been postulated to predict how predation on bird nests changes along urbanization gradients; some predict increased and others decreased predation pressures in urban compared to rural habitats. Using a formal meta-analytical approach, we carried out a systematic literature review to test whether predation on natural and artificial bird nests increased or decreased with urbanization. We found that the effect was highly heterogeneous among studies, due to contrasting results between studies that used artificial nests and those that used natural nests. For artificial nests, survival rate tended to decrease with increasing urbanization, with higher predation in more urbanized study sites. For natural nests, survival tended to increase with the level of urbanization. The latter finding supports predictions of the "urban habitats as predation-safe zones" and "urban nest predator paradox" hypotheses, but the effect may be confounded by many studies not distinguishing between predation and other sources of mortality. None of the other considered methodological and ecological variables explained the variation in a robust way. The discrepancy between the results of artificial and natural nest studies may be due to differences in experimental design (e.g., cavity nests have been more commonly studied in natural nest studies), intrinsic differences between the two nest types (e.g., lack of parental nest defense in artificial nests), or sampling bias. We conclude that the direction of the relationship between urbanization and nest predation is likely to depend on the methodology of the study. Therefore, results from studies using different methodologies, particularly natural or artificial nests, should be generalized with caution to avoid over-interpretations.

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Differences in measures of boldness even when underlying behavioral syndromes are present in two populations of the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Cited by 27 publications

References 75 publications

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Great tits take greater risk toward humans and sparrowhawks in urban habitats than in forests

Does Urbanization Affect Predation of Bird Nests? A Meta-Analysis

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