TY - JOUR
T1 - Are birds more afraid in urban parks or cemeteries? A Latin American study contrasts with results from Europe
AU - Morelli, Federico
AU - Leveau, Lucas M.
AU - Mikula, Peter
AU - MacGregor-Fors, Ian
AU - Bocelli, M. Lucia
AU - Quesada-Acuña, Sergio Gabriel
AU - González-Lagos, César
AU - Gutiérrez-Tapia, Pablo
AU - Dri, Gabriela Franzoi
AU - Delgado-V., Carlos A.
AU - Zavala, Alvaro Garitano
AU - Campos, Jackeline
AU - Ortega-Álvarez, Rubén
AU - Contreras-Rodríguez, A. Isain
AU - López, Daniela Souza
AU - Toledo, Maria Cecília B.
AU - Sarquis, Andres
AU - Giraudo, Alejandro
AU - Echevarria, Ada Lilian
AU - Fanjul, María Elisa
AU - Martínez, María Valeria
AU - Haedo, Josefina
AU - Sanz, Luis Gonzalo Cano
AU - Dominguez, Yuri Adais Peña
AU - Fernandez, Viviana
AU - Marinero, Veronica
AU - Abilhoa, Vinícius
AU - Amorin, Rafael
AU - Fontana, Carla Suertegaray
AU - da Silva, Thaiane Weinert
AU - Vargas, Sarah Sandri Zalewski
AU - Escobar Ibañez, Juan F.
AU - Juri, María Dolores
AU - Camín, Sergio R.
AU - Marone, Luis
AU - Piratelli, Augusto João
AU - Franchin, Alexandre Gabriel
AU - Crispim, Larissa
AU - Benitez, Julieta
AU - Benedetti, Yanina
N1 - Funding Information:
LML was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación, PICT 2018-03871. CSF, TWS and SSZV are grateful to Eduardo Chiarani for support in fieldwork. The entrance at Moinhos de Vento Park and São João Cemetery was allowed by Diovani Renato Machado (Manager on Unidade de Áreas Verdes e Necrópoles, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil). We thank Oldemar Hollman and Martin Lutero Memorial staff for support and licenses and to Secretaria da Agricultura do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. CGL was supported by ANID PIA/BASAL FB0002 and PAI 2022, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez.
Funding Information:
LML was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación , PICT 2018-03871 . CSF, TWS and SSZV are grateful to Eduardo Chiarani for support in fieldwork. The entrance at Moinhos de Vento Park and São João Cemetery was allowed by Diovani Renato Machado (Manager on Unidade de Áreas Verdes e Necrópoles, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil). We thank Oldemar Hollman and Martin Lutero Memorial staff for support and licenses and to Secretaria da Agricultura do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. CGL was supported by ANID PIA/BASAL FB0002 and PAI 2022 , Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/2/25
Y1 - 2023/2/25
N2 - The escape behaviour, measured as flight initiation distance (FID; the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential predator, usually a human in the study systems), is a measure widely used to study fearfulness and risk-taking in animals. Previous studies have shown significant differences in the escape behaviour of birds inhabiting cemeteries and urban parks in European cities, where birds seem to be shyer in the latter. We collected a regional dataset of the FID of birds inhabiting cemeteries and parks across Latin America in peri-urban, suburban and urban parks and cemeteries. FIDs were recorded for eighty-one bird species. Mean species-specific FIDs ranged from 1.9 to 19.7 m for species with at least two observations (fifty-seven species). Using Bayesian regression modelling and controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of the FID among bird species and city and country, we found that, in contrast to a recent publication from Europe, birds escape earlier in cemeteries than parks in the studied Latin American cities. FIDs were also significantly shorter in urban areas than in peri-urban areas and in areas with higher human density. Our results indicate that some idiosyncratic patterns in animal fearfulness towards humans may emerge among different geographic regions, highlighting difficulties with scaling up and application of regional findings to other ecosystems and world regions. Such differences could be associated with intrinsic differences between the pool of bird species from temperate European and mostly tropical Latin American cities, characterized by different evolutionary histories, but also with differences in the historical process of urbanization.
AB - The escape behaviour, measured as flight initiation distance (FID; the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential predator, usually a human in the study systems), is a measure widely used to study fearfulness and risk-taking in animals. Previous studies have shown significant differences in the escape behaviour of birds inhabiting cemeteries and urban parks in European cities, where birds seem to be shyer in the latter. We collected a regional dataset of the FID of birds inhabiting cemeteries and parks across Latin America in peri-urban, suburban and urban parks and cemeteries. FIDs were recorded for eighty-one bird species. Mean species-specific FIDs ranged from 1.9 to 19.7 m for species with at least two observations (fifty-seven species). Using Bayesian regression modelling and controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of the FID among bird species and city and country, we found that, in contrast to a recent publication from Europe, birds escape earlier in cemeteries than parks in the studied Latin American cities. FIDs were also significantly shorter in urban areas than in peri-urban areas and in areas with higher human density. Our results indicate that some idiosyncratic patterns in animal fearfulness towards humans may emerge among different geographic regions, highlighting difficulties with scaling up and application of regional findings to other ecosystems and world regions. Such differences could be associated with intrinsic differences between the pool of bird species from temperate European and mostly tropical Latin American cities, characterized by different evolutionary histories, but also with differences in the historical process of urbanization.
KW - Aves
KW - Cemeteries
KW - Escape behaviour
KW - Fear-response
KW - Human disturbance
KW - Neotropics
KW - Urban ecology
KW - Urban parks
KW - Urbanization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143291623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160534
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160534
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143291623
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 861
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 160534
ER -