Human influences on antipredator behaviour in Darwin’s finches

Gotanda, Kiyoko M.

doi:10.1101/591651

Cited by 2 publications

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References 60 publications

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“…Our results also show that individual finches that are relatively near each other geographically can have different gut microbiota communities and therefore we caution against drawing broad conclusions based on single populations. Darwin's finches face tremendous challenges in the Galapagos from invasive parasites (Fessl et al., ; Knutie, ; Knutie et al., ; Koop, Kim, Knutie, Adler, & Clayton, ; Wikelski et al., ) and predators (Gotanda, ) to dynamic annual changes in natural and novel food availability (Grant & Grant, ; de León et al., ). The implications of the variation in gut microbiota and morphology in the evolutionary ecology of Darwin's finches has exciting potential for future functional work (Grond et al., ; Kohl, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human activity can influence the gut microbiota of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos Islands

2019

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The gut microbiota of animal hosts can be influenced by environmental factors, such as unnatural food items that are introduced by humans. Over the past 30 years, human presence has grown exponentially in the Galapagos Islands, which are home to endemic Darwin's finches. Consequently, humans have changed the environment and diet of Darwin's finches, which in turn, could affect their gut microbiota. In this study, we compared the gut microbiota of two species of Darwin's finches, small ground finches (Geospiza fuliginosa) and medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis), across sites with and without human presence, where finches prefer human‐processed and natural food, respectively. We predicted that: (a) finch microbiota would differ between sites with and without humans due to differences in diet, and (b) gut microbiota of each finch species would be most similar where finches have the highest niche overlap (areas with humans) compared to the lowest niche overlap (areas without humans). We found that gut bacterial community structure differed across sites and host species. Gut bacterial diversity was most distinct between the two species at the site with human presence compared to the site without human presence, which contradicted our predictions. Within host species, medium ground finches had lower bacterial diversity at the site with human presence compared to the site without human presence and bacterial diversity of small ground finches did not differ between sites. Our results show that the gut microbiota of Darwin's finches is affected differently across sites with varying human presence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human activity can influence the gut microbiota of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos Islands

2019

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“…Data are deposited and archived in the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15dwp (Gotanda, ).…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human influences on antipredator behaviour in Darwin’s finches

Gotanda

2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Humans exert dramatic influences upon the environment, creating novel selective pressures to which organisms must adapt. On the Galapagos, humans have established a permanent presence and have altered selective pressures through influences such as invasive predators and urbanization, affecting iconic species such as Darwin's finches. Here, I ask two key questions: (a) Does antipredator behaviour (e.g., flight initiation distance – FID) change depending on whether invasive predators are historically absent, present, or eradicated? and (b) To what degree does urbanization affect antipredator behaviour? This study is one of the first to quantify antipredator behaviour in endemic species after the eradication of invasive predators. This will help to understand the consequences of invasive predator eradication and inform conservation measures. I quantified FID, an antipredator behaviour, in the small ground finch, across multiple islands in the Galapagos that varied in the presence, absence, or successful eradication of invasive predators. On islands with human populations, I quantified FID in urban and non‐urban populations of finches. FID was higher on islands with invasive predators compared to islands with no predators. On islands from which invasive predators were eradicated ~11 years previously, FID was also higher than on islands with no invasive predators. Within islands that had both urban and non‐urban populations of finches, FID was lower in urban finch populations, but only above a threshold human population size. FID in larger urban areas on islands with invasive predators was similar to or lower than FID on islands with no history of invasive predators. Overall, these results suggest that invasive predators can have a lasting effect on antipredator behaviour, even after eradication. Furthermore, the effect of urbanization can strongly oppose the effect of invasive predators, reducing antipredator behaviour to levels lower than found on pristine islands with no human influences. These results improve our understanding of human influences on antipredator behaviour which can help inform future conservation and management efforts on islands.

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Human influences on antipredator behaviour in Darwin’s finches

Cited by 2 publications

References 60 publications

Human activity can influence the gut microbiota of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos Islands

Human activity can influence the gut microbiota of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos Islands

Human influences on antipredator behaviour in Darwin’s finches

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