Boldness of Urban Australian Magpies and Local Traffic Volume

Gravolin, Isaac; Key, Michelle L.; Lill, Alan

doi:10.3184/175815514x14151981691872

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…First, our study supports the findings of others that flight response (or initiation) distance is influenced by the behavioral type, or personality, of individuals. Similar associations have been reported in horses (Birke et al ), marmots ( Marmota flaviventris ; Petelle et al ), corvids (Gravolin et al ) and flatfish ( Paralichths olivaceus ; Rupia et al ). Second, our results show that flight response distances are continuously malleable as a function of experience.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Personality influences wildlife responses to aversive conditioning

Found

Clair

2018

J Wildl Manag

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Ungulate species around the world are habituating to humans and human infrastructure, which can cause the loss of migratory behavior, local overpopulation, ecosystem damage, and human-wildlife interactions. Wildlife managers sometimes attempt to reduce habituation by subjecting ungulates to aversive conditioning, comprised of negative stimuli in association with specific locations or behaviors, but high variability in the responsiveness of animals has limited the utility of this technique. We studied this limitation using 20 wild elk (Cervus canadensis) inhabiting a mountain town by identifying and comparing the responses of individuals categorized along a personality gradient from shy to bold, subjecting animals to aversive conditioning that either isolated animals or let them remain in a group, and then comparing their wariness via flight response distances before, during, and after conditioning. Bolder elk had significantly greater increases in wariness during conditioning and greater decreases in wariness once the conditioning period was complete. Isolation versus group-based treatment did not affect responsiveness during the conditioning period, but isolated animals retained more wariness after conditioning ended. These results suggest that wildlife managers could increase the efficacy of aversive conditioning by identifying and targeting specific personality types and individuals to modify behavior and mitigate the broader ecological effects of habituated wildlife.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Personality influences wildlife responses to aversive conditioning

Found

Clair

2018

J Wildl Manag

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“…Several studies have shown such habituation‐like responses to frequently encountered stimuli by various taxa. Australian magpies Cracticus tibicen had shorter FIDs in response to an approaching human in high pedestrian‐traffic areas than in areas with few pedestrians (Gravolin, Key & Lill, ). Li et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can experience reduce collisions between birds and vehicles?

et al. 2016

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Bird collisions with vehicles cause serious safety, financial and conservation concerns worldwide, but the causes of such collisions are poorly described. We investigated how experience with vehicles influenced avian avoidance responses. We trained three groups of vehicle-na€ ıve rock pigeons Columba livia with 32 near-miss vehicle approaches over 4 weeks at 60 and 120 km h À1 , and also included individuals that heard but did not see the approaches (control group). We subsequently measured flight initiation distance (FID) and whether individuals 'collided' with a virtual vehicle directly approaching at 120 or 240 km h À1 using video playback. We found that inexperienced individuals (i.e. the control group) had longer FIDs than experienced birds, although only one of 90 individuals across groups successfully avoided virtual collision. Vehicle approach speed during video playback and the interaction of approach speed and training group did not influence FID. Our results suggest that a habituation-like effect based on repeated observations of passing vehicles could contribute to ineffective vehicle avoidance responses by birds when collisions are imminent. Novel strategies should be developed to enhance avoidance responses to high-speed vehicles to minimize bird mortality.

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“…One way of measuring such discrimination, risk perception, and responsiveness of animals is through the flight-initiation distance (FID), the distance between a threatening stimulus and an animal when an escape response is initiated (Weston et al, 2012). Many species exhibit reduced FIDs to humans in areas where humans are more common (Kitchen et al, 2010;Weston et al, 2012;McGiffin et al, 2013;Gravolin et al, 2014;van Dongen et al, 2015b;Vines and Lill, 2015). These species can be said to have developed "tolerance" of human proximity-defined as when animals permit closer approaches by humans without overtly responding or fleeing (Blumstein, in press).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time Since Urbanization but Not Encephalisation Is Associated with Increased Tolerance of Human Proximity in Birds

et al. 2016

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The examination of links between a high degree of encephalisation (i.e., a large brain mass relative to body size) and the capacity of wildlife to inhabit anthropogenic habitats has formed the basis of several recent studies, although typically they have not uncovered any relationship. It, however, remains unclear whether encephalisation is directly related to a species' capacity to develop tolerance to human proximity (i.e., a reduction in response to approaching humans). It is also unknown whether such a relationship is related to the size of specific areas of the brain. Using published data on flight-initiation distance (FID), the distance at which animals flee from an approaching human, we estimate the degree of tolerance of human proximity for 42 bird species by comparing FIDs in urban and rural areas, with relatively high and low exposure to humans, respectively. We used a phylogenetic, comparative approach to analyse the relationship of degree of tolerance, and of FID in urban and rural populations more directly, to relative sizes of whole brains (42 species) and brain components (25 species) for the species, and examine the effect of the year that the bird species was first recorded in an urban area (year of urbanization). We demonstrate an interaction between bird habitat and year of urbanization on FIDs. Urban populations of species that have a longer history of inhabiting urban areas have lower FIDs (i.e., birds that were urbanized earlier are more tolerant), which may suggest local selection for birds with reduced responsiveness to humans in urban areas. The pattern is not seen in rural populations of the same species, providing additional evidence that it is greater exposure to humans that has resulted in this tolerance. While we found that forebrain mass and optic lobe mass are influential positive predictors of FID there was no indication that degree of tolerance itself was related to any brain size metric and hence no support for the idea that urban populations of species with larger brains are better able to habituate to human presence. This suggests that processes other than encephalisation explain the high degree of tolerance evident in urban-dwelling birds.

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Boldness of Urban Australian Magpies and Local Traffic Volume

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Personality influences wildlife responses to aversive conditioning

Personality influences wildlife responses to aversive conditioning

Can experience reduce collisions between birds and vehicles?

Time Since Urbanization but Not Encephalisation Is Associated with Increased Tolerance of Human Proximity in Birds

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