The effect of white noise on behavioral and flight responses of blue-tailed skinks

Kelligrew, Connor; Tian, S.-L.; Weiss, Marcus; Williams, Debra; Blumstein, Daniel T.

doi:10.1093/cz/zoaa046

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Our results are also consistent with studies conducted on other animals. We note that our quantification of risk is slightly different from those studies where human-populated sites had lower predator abundance (Carrasco & Blumstein, 2012;Coleman et al, 2008;Nickel et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2015), whereas in our study, predator abundance was higher in sites of higher human disturbance (Kelligrew et al, 2021;McGowan et al, 2014;Williams et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 97%

“…Thus, while skinks were able to discriminate among people wearing white hats with different symbols on them, this did not affect their subsequent decision to flee. This result was consistent with Kelligrew et al (2021) where blue‐tailed skinks did not alter FID when exposed to white noise but did increase looking and locomotion rates. Common mynas also adjusted their vigilance behavior after hearing motorcycle sounds compared to silence, but this ultimately did not affect their FID response (Hubbard et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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Blue‐tailed skinks have predation‐dependent threat discrimination

et al. 2022

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Organisms use a variety of different sensory modalities (i.e., visual, olfactory, acoustic, and tactile) to detect cues that provide information that enhances survival (Von der Emde & Warrant, 2015). Specific cues are used to identify food (Krebs & Inman, 1992), mates (Crews & Moore, 1986), and to assess risk, which often involves detecting predators (Apfelbach et al., 2005). Early detection of predators is crucial for fitness, especially for prey that rely on escape.Upon detecting a predator, an individual may flee the area or flee to

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

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Blue‐tailed skinks have predation‐dependent threat discrimination

et al. 2022

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“…The results we obtained contradict the “cognitive distraction” and “masking” hypotheses, which coincidentally predict a slower response to an approaching predator in noise-exposed birds compared to a control group. Instead, the results support the “increased threat” hypothesis, according to which animals are faster to respond to a predator when noise is broadcast during its approach ( Hubbard et al 2015 ; Meillère et al 2015 ; Shannon et al 2016b ; Kelligrew et al 2021 ). The faster response to a predator is explained by the higher alertness of animals in the presence of acoustic stimuli that may increase the perceived level of threat, and consequently earlier detection of the intruder ( Frid and Dill 2002 ; Quinn et al 2006 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…The novelty of our work is that we conducted our experiment not in a natural or semi-natural environment, but in a man-made environment with inherent human-induced noise (with which the animals living there are well acquainted) and the constant presence of humans. In earlier field studies, experimentally applied noise was a stimulus new to the environment of the animals studied (e.g., Quinn et al 2006 ; Chan et al 2010a , 2010b ; Meillère et al 2015 ; Shannon et al 2016b ; Kelligrew et al 2021 ; but see Hubbard et al 2015 and Petrelli et al 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic noise interacts with the predation risk assessment in a free-ranging bird

2023

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Anthropogenic noise can affect a number of behavioral, physiological and ecological aspects of animals from major taxonomic groups, raising serious conservation concerns. For example, noise pollution impacts communicative behavior and perception of signals, movements and distribution, as well as predator-prey interactions, such as hunting success or predator detection and predation risk assessment. We have carried out an experimental playback study, in which we investigated whether exposure to anthropogenic noise (sound of a tractor) distracts free-ranging barn swallows Hirundo rustica from paying attention to an approaching human ‘predator’ (the ‘cognitive distraction’ hypothesis), or whether noise leads to increased responsiveness to this ‘predator’ (the ‘increased threat’ hypothesis). The subjects were male barn swallows attending their breeding territories during the time when the females were incubating. We found that barn swallow males initiated flight at significantly greater distances to the approaching human ‘predator’ in the noise treatment than during the quiet control trials. These results suggest that anthropogenic noise causes increased vigilance and reactivity rather than distraction, enabling birds to avoid the ‘predator’ more quickly. We further discuss the mechanism behind the increased alertness in response to noise and contrast the ‘increased threat’ mechanism, usually tested in previous studies, with an alternative ‘cognitive sensitization’ mechanism.

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The sound of fear is heritable

Blumstein,

Vu,

Edic

et al. 2024

Current Zoology

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The nonlinearity and fear hypothesis predicts that highly aroused vocal mammals and birds produce vocalizations (notably alarm calls and screams) which contain a variety of non-linear phenomena (NLP). Such vocalizations often sound ‘noisy’ because vocal production systems are over-blown when animals are highly aroused. While much is known about the conditions under which animals produce vocalizations containing NLP, and how species respond to them, there is little research about the heritability of such behavioral traits. Using the quantitative genetic animal model, we estimated the genetic basis of ‘noise’ in alarm calls produced by females and found significant heritability in call entropy—our measure of the noisiness. About 9% of variance in noisiness can be accounted for by genetic differences. Taken together, these findings suggest that the degree to which marmots produce noisy calls is modestly heritable and can be thus subject to further evolution via natural selection.

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The effect of white noise on behavioral and flight responses of blue-tailed skinks

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Blue‐tailed skinks have predation‐dependent threat discrimination

Blue‐tailed skinks have predation‐dependent threat discrimination

Anthropogenic noise interacts with the predation risk assessment in a free-ranging bird

The sound of fear is heritable

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