Personality Traits and Behavioral Syndromes in Differently Urbanized Populations of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Bókony, Veronika; Kulcsár, Anna; Tóth, Zoltán; Liker, András

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036639

Cited by 154 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Conversely, the adaptive hypothesis states that correlations between personality traits emerge when selection favors correlated behaviors in particular environments, this correlation being adaptive itself (Bell, 2005). Here, we show how behavioral syndromes detected among rural birds changed when considering their urban counterparts, supporting the adaptive nature of these behavioral correlations (Scales et al, 2011;Bókony et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Carrete

Tella

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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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.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Behavioral Correlations Associated with Fear of Humans Differ between Rural and Urban Burrowing Owls

Carrete

Tella

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…However, a similar significant correlation was not found in urban populations (Evans et al 2010;Scales et al 2011). Differences in behavioral syndromes of urban and rural populations have been described in several species of birds (Bókony et al 2012;Miranda et al 2013), and population differences in behavioral syndromes have been described in other systems and may be influenced by predation (Bell 2005;Bell and Sih 2007;Dingemanse et al 2007), competition (Dochtermann et al 2012) or both individual and community changes brought on by insecticide use (Royauté et al 2014). Sih and Bell (2008) argue that a correlation between aggression and boldness reflects a trade-off between effective resource gathering and costs of predation for aggressive, bold individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Differences in measures of boldness even when underlying behavioral syndromes are present in two populations of the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Myers

Hyman

2016

J Ethol

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One commonly studied behavioral syndrome is the correlation between aggression and boldness. Studies in song sparrows (M. melodia) have found greater aggression and boldness in urban populations and a correlation between aggression and boldness in rural populations, but not within urban populations. In previous studies, boldness was measured as flight initiation distance (FID), which may reflect habituation by urban birds to human presence. In this study, we measured boldness using playbacks of heterospecific alarm calls and investigated whether higher boldness is a general trait of urban birds and whether the same pattern of correlations between aggression and boldness would be seen. We conducted trials involving FID, alarm call playbacks and conspecific song playbacks on 25 birds from both an urban and a rural site. The results showed that urban birds were bolder, as measured by FID and response to alarm calls. Boldness and aggression were correlated in rural birds with each method of measuring boldness but were correlated in urban birds only when using alarm call playbacks. Our results suggest that a behavioral syndrome exists in both urban and rural populations but that urban birds are able to decrease their response to human disturbance.

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“…Using survival models to analyse the approach data generated from neophobia tests is common (e.g. Bókony, Kulcsár, Tóth, & Liker, 2012). We primarily investigated the effects of experimental condition, dominance, season and any interactions between them.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal changes in neophobia and its consistency in rooks: the effect of novelty type and dominance position

et al. 2016

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Neophobia, or the fear of novelty, may offer benefits to animals by limiting their exposure to unknown danger, but can also impose costs by preventing the exploration of potential resources. The costs and benefits of neophobia may vary throughout the year if predation pressure, resource distribution or conspecific competition changes seasonally. Despite such variation, neophobia levels are often assumed to be temporally and individually stable. Whether or not neophobia expression changes seasonally and fluctuates equally for all individuals is crucial to understanding the drivers, consequences and plasticity of novelty avoidance. We investigated seasonal differences and individual consistency in the motivation and novelty responses of a captive group of rooks, Corvus frugilegus, a seasonally breeding, colonial species of corvid that is known for being neophobic. We tested the group around novel objects and novel people to determine whether responses generalized across novelty types, and considered whether differences in dominance could influence the social risk of approaching unknown stimuli. We found that the group's level of object neophobia was stable year-round, but individuals were not consistent between seasons, despite being consistent within seasons. In contrast, the group's avoidance of novel people decreased during the breeding season, and individuals were consistent year-round. Additionally, although subordinate birds were more likely to challenge dominants during the breeding season, this social risk taking did not translate to greater novelty approach. Since seasonal variation and individual consistency varied differently towards each novelty type, responses towards novel objects and people seem to be governed by different mechanisms. Such a degree of fluctuation has consequences for other individually consistent behaviours often measured within the nonhuman personality literature.

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Personality Traits and Behavioral Syndromes in Differently Urbanized Populations of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Cited by 154 publications

References 58 publications

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

Differences in measures of boldness even when underlying behavioral syndromes are present in two populations of the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Seasonal changes in neophobia and its consistency in rooks: the effect of novelty type and dominance position

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