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
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DOI：
10.3389/fevo.2017.00054
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发表时间：
2017-05-31
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Tella, Jose L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Carrete, Martina;Tella, Jose L.
行为学研究是理解动物种群如何面对全球变化的基础。尽管许多研究都集中在个体可以自适应地调整自己的行为以应对环境变化的观点上，但最近的证据支持在相关行为套件中存在个体差异。然而，在不同的环境约束下，选择是如何改变这些行为结构的，我们知之甚少。鸟类对城市环境的殖民与它们对人类恐惧的个体间差异有关，以它们与接近的人类的飞行起始距离来衡量，这样城市生活就会选择无畏的个体。这种行为已被证明是可遗传的，并且在穴居猫头鹰（Athene culcularia）的成年寿命中高度一致。在这里，我们通过实验评估，在野外条件下，城市生活是否涉及其他行为的变化，如探索和反掠夺反应，通过它们与人类恐惧的相关性。与农村鸟类相比，城市鸟类对人类更无所畏惧，它们能更快地探索新的食物资源，保护自己的巢穴不受捕食者的侵害。然而，尽管对人类的恐惧与农村人口的探索和反掠夺反应呈正相关，但它只与城市人口的探索相关。在城市环境中释放捕食者可以放松——甚至是反选择——反捕食者的行为，从而消除自然种群中存在的行为相关性。总之，我们的研究结果表明，农村和城市动物在某些行为方面可能存在差异，这可能是城市地区殖民化过程中的选择过程以及个体遇到的不同生态环境的结果。
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.