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Urban Great Tits (Parus major) Show Higher Distress Calling and Pecking Rates than Rural Birds across Europe

Senar, Juan Carlos ; Garamszegi, Laszlo Z. ; Tilgar, Vallo ; Biard, Clotilde ; Moreno-Rueda, Gregorio ; Salmón, Pablo LU ; Rivas, J. M. ; Sprau, Philipp ; Dingemanse, Niels J. and Charmantier, Anne , et al. (2017) In Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 5.
Abstract
Environmental change associated with urbanization is considered one of the major threats to biodiversity. Some species nevertheless seem to thrive in the urban areas, probably associated with selection for phenotypes that match urban habitats. Previous research defined different “copying styles” in distress behavior during the handling of birds. These behaviors vary along a continuum from “proactive” to “reactive” copers. By studying avian distress behaviors we aimed to broaden our understanding of the relationship between coping styles and urbanization. Using a large-scale comparative study of seven paired rural and urban sites across Europe, we assayed distress behaviors during handling of urban and rural-dwelling populations of the... (More)
Environmental change associated with urbanization is considered one of the major threats to biodiversity. Some species nevertheless seem to thrive in the urban areas, probably associated with selection for phenotypes that match urban habitats. Previous research defined different “copying styles” in distress behavior during the handling of birds. These behaviors vary along a continuum from “proactive” to “reactive” copers. By studying avian distress behaviors we aimed to broaden our understanding of the relationship between coping styles and urbanization. Using a large-scale comparative study of seven paired rural and urban sites across Europe, we assayed distress behaviors during handling of urban and rural-dwelling populations of the great tit Parus major. We detected no consistent pairwise differences in breath rate between urban and rural habitats. However, urban great tits displayed more distress calling (fear screams) and higher pecking rate (handling aggression) than rural birds. These findings suggest that urban great tits have a more proactive coping strategy when dealing with stressful conditions. This finding is in line with previous studies implying that urban great tits are more explorative, less neophobic and display shorter flight distances than their rural counterparts, representing further aspects of the same “proactive”, coping strategy. Future research should investigate whether reported differences in distress behavior are due to local adaption caused by natural selection or due to phenotypic plasticity. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
volume
5
article number
163
publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85043690464
ISSN
2296-701X
DOI
10.3389/fevo.2017.00163
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4d5ab893-0aae-4b5c-8dba-2e9406a4ac27
date added to LUP
2018-01-20 12:04:33
date last changed
2024-05-14 02:23:06
@article{4d5ab893-0aae-4b5c-8dba-2e9406a4ac27,
  abstract     = {{Environmental change associated with urbanization is considered one of the major threats to biodiversity. Some species nevertheless seem to thrive in the urban areas, probably associated with selection for phenotypes that match urban habitats. Previous research defined different “copying styles” in distress behavior during the handling of birds. These behaviors vary along a continuum from “proactive” to “reactive” copers. By studying avian distress behaviors we aimed to broaden our understanding of the relationship between coping styles and urbanization. Using a large-scale comparative study of seven paired rural and urban sites across Europe, we assayed distress behaviors during handling of urban and rural-dwelling populations of the great tit Parus major. We detected no consistent pairwise differences in breath rate between urban and rural habitats. However, urban great tits displayed more distress calling (fear screams) and higher pecking rate (handling aggression) than rural birds. These findings suggest that urban great tits have a more proactive coping strategy when dealing with stressful conditions. This finding is in line with previous studies implying that urban great tits are more explorative, less neophobic and display shorter flight distances than their rural counterparts, representing further aspects of the same “proactive”, coping strategy. Future research should investigate whether reported differences in distress behavior are due to local adaption caused by natural selection or due to phenotypic plasticity.}},
  author       = {{Senar, Juan Carlos and Garamszegi, Laszlo Z. and Tilgar, Vallo and Biard, Clotilde and Moreno-Rueda, Gregorio and Salmón, Pablo and Rivas, J. M. and Sprau, Philipp and Dingemanse, Niels J. and Charmantier, Anne and Demeyrier, Virginie and Navalpotro, Helena and Isaksson, Caroline}},
  issn         = {{2296-701X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
  series       = {{Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution}},
  title        = {{Urban Great Tits (Parus major) Show Higher Distress Calling and Pecking Rates than Rural Birds across Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2017.00163}},
  doi          = {{10.3389/fevo.2017.00163}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}