Estrategias de escape de aves en ambientes urbanos

Mariana Lucia Bocelli; Federico Morelli; Yanina Benedetti; Lucas Leveau

doi:10.56178/eh.v37i2.395

Articles Published 01 December 2022 https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v37i2.395

Birds' escape strategies in urban environments

birds behavior seasonality urbanization escape strategy

Mariana Lucia Bocelli Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires – IEGEBA (CONICET – UBA), Ciudad Universitaria, Pab 2, Piso 4, Buenos Aires 1426, Argentina

Federico Morelli Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Community Ecology & Conservation, Kamýcká 129, CZ-165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Yanina Benedetti Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Community Ecology & Conservation, Kamýcká 129, CZ-165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Lucas Leveau Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires – IEGEBA (CONICET – UBA), Ciudad Universitaria, Pab 2, Piso 4, Buenos Aires 1426, Argentina

Abstract

When escaping from predators, urban birds may choose between two strategies: to run or to fly. These escape behaviors have different costs for the individual, the first having a lower energy expenditure but a higher risk of predation and vice versa. However, little is known about the factors affecting the selection of these strategies. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the variation of different escape strategies in birds in relation to intrinsic (species) or extrinsic (environmental variables, season of the year) factors. To this end, factors that influence the flight behavior of 433 individuals belonging to 24 species of urban birds were analyzed. Generalized linear models were performed to determine the effect of the different factors: vegetation cover and infrastructure, human disturbances, species, seasona- lity, gregariousness, habitat, and bird size. The flight strategy was preferred during the breeding season and when birds formed larger flocks. Also, the probability of selecting one strategy or the other varied between species. The results suggest that escape behavior is influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and highlights birds’ ability to adapt their behavior to changing environmental conditions.

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References

Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B y Walker S (2014) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823
Biondi LM, Fuentes GM, Córdoba RS, Bó MS, Cavalli M, Paterlini CA y García GO (2020) Variation in boldness and novelty response between rural and urban predatory birds: The Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango as study case. Behavioural processes 173 104064. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104064
Blumstein DT (2006) Developing an evolutionary ecology of fear: how life history and natural history traits affect disturbance tolerance in birds. Animal behaviour 71(2): 389-399. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.05.010
Blumstein DT (2010) Flush early and avoid the rush: a general rule of antipredator behavior? Behavioral Ecology 21(3): 440-442. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq030
Blumstein DT (2019) What chasing birds can teach us about predation risk effects: past insights and future directions. Journal of Ornithology 160(2): 587-592
Blumstein DT, Fernández‐juricic E, Zollner PA y Garity SC (2005) Inter‐specific variation in avian responses to human disturbance. Journal of applied ecology 42(5): 943-953. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01071.x
Blumstein DT, Anthony LL, Harcourt R y Ross G (2003) Testing a key assumption of wildlife buffer zones: is flight initiation distance a species-specific trait? Biological conservation 110(1): 97-100. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00180-5
Bötsch Y, Tablado Z y Jenni L (2017) Experimental evidence of human recreational disturbance effects on bird-territory establishment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284(1858), 20170846. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0846
Brown JS y Kotler BP (2004) Hazardous duty pay and the foraging cost of predation. Ecology letters 7(10): 999-1014. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00661.x
Burnham KP y Anderson DR (2002) A practical information-theoretic approach. Model selection and multimodel inference
Butler PJ (1991) Exercise in birds. Journal of Experimental Biology 160(1): 233-262. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.160.1.233
Canevari M y Manzione M (2017) “Aves argentinas, Guía de campo digital”. Aves Argentinas/Asociación Ornitológica del Plata [Aplicación móvil]
Carrete M y Tella JL (2010) Individual consistency in flight initiation distances in Burrowing Owls: a new hypothesis on disturbance-induced habitat selection. Biology letters 6(2): 167-170
Cavalli M, Baladrón AV, Isacch JP, Biondi LM y Bó MS (2016) Differential risk perception of rural and urban Burrowing Owls exposed to humans and dogs. Behavioural Processes 124: 60-65
Ciuti S, Pipia A, Ghiandai F, Grignolio S y Apollonio M (2008) The key role of lamb presence in affecting flight response in Sardinian Mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon). Behavioural Processes 77(3): 408-412. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2007.09.001
Cooper WE (2003) Risk factors affecting escape behavior by the Desert Iguana, Dipsosaurus dorsalis: speed and directness of predator approach, degree of cover, direction of turning by a predator, and temperature. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81(6): 979-984. DOI: 10.1139/z03-079
Cooper WE, Pérez-Mellado V y Hawlena D (2007) Number, speeds, and approach paths of predators affect escape behavior by the Balearic Lizard, Podarcis lilfordi. Journal of Herpetology 41(2): 197-204. DOI: 10.1670/00221511(2007)41[197:NSAAPO]2.0.CO;2
Dearborn DC y Kark S (2010) Motivations for conserving urban biodiversity. Conservation biology 24(2): 432-440. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01328.x
Deviche P y Davies S (2014) Reproductive phenology of urban birds: environmental cues and mechanisms. Avian urban ecology: behavioural and physiological adaptations. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 98-115
Díaz M, Møller AP, Flensted-Jensen E, Grim T, Ibáñez-Álamo JD, Jokimäki J y Tryjanowski P (2013) The geography of fear: a latitudinal gradient in anti-predator escape distances of birds across Europe. PloS one 8(5), e64634. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064634
Domenici P y Blake RW (1993) Escape trajectories in Angelfish (Pterophyllum eimekei). Journal of Experimental Biology 177(1): 253-272. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.177.1.253
Fernández-Juricic E, Jimenez MD y Lucas E (2002) Factors affecting intra-and inter-specific variations in the difference between alert distances and flight distances for birds in forested habitats. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80(7): 1212-1220. DOI: 10.1139/z02-104
Fuller RA, Warren PH, Armsworth PR, Barbosa O y Gaston KJ (2008) Garden bird feeding predicts the structure of urban avian assemblages. Diversity and Distribution, 14(1): 131-137. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00439.x
Garamszegi LZ y Møller AP (2011) Nonrandom variation in within-species sample size and missing data in phylogenetic comparative studies. Systematic Biology 60(6): 876-880. DOI: 10.2307/41316585
García-Arroyo M y MacGregor-Fors I (2020) Tolerant to humans? Assessment of alert and flight initiation distances of two bird species in relation to sex, flock size, and environmental characteristics. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 32(5): 445-456
Gardener M (2017) Statistics for ecologists using R and Excel: Data collection, exploration, analysis and presentation. Pelagic Publishing Ltd.
Grant JW y Noakes DL (1987) Escape behaviour and use of cover by young-of-the-year Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 44(8): 1390-1396
Graham MH (2003) Confronting multicollinearity in ecological multiple regression. Ecology 84(11): 2809-2815. DOI: 10.1890/02-3114
Griffin AS (2004) Social learning about predators: a review and prospectus. Animal Learning & Behavior 32(1): 131-140
Ibáñez‐Álamo JD y Soler M (2010). Does urbanization affect selective pressures and life-history strategies in the Common Blackbird (Turdus merula L.)? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 101(4): 759-766. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01543.x
Ibáñez‐Álamo JD, Rubio E, Benedetti Y y Morelli F (2017) Global loss of avian evolutionary uniqueness in urban areas. Global change biology 23(8): 2990-2998. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13567
Kullberg C y Lafrenz M (2007) Escape take-off strategies in birds: the significance of protective cover. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61(10): 1555-1560

How to cite

Mariana Lucia Bocelli, Federico Morelli, Yanina Benedetti, Lucas Leveau (2022). Birds' escape strategies in urban environments. El Hornero, Vol. 37 No. 2 (2022), 75-85. https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v37i2.395

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License: CC BY-NC 4.0

[1] Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B y Walker S (2014) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823

[2] Biondi LM, Fuentes GM, Córdoba RS, Bó MS, Cavalli M, Paterlini CA y García GO (2020) Variation in boldness and novelty response between rural and urban predatory birds: The Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango as study case. Behavioural processes 173 104064. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104064

[3] Blumstein DT (2006) Developing an evolutionary ecology of fear: how life history and natural history traits affect disturbance tolerance in birds. Animal behaviour 71(2): 389-399. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.05.010

[4] Blumstein DT (2010) Flush early and avoid the rush: a general rule of antipredator behavior? Behavioral Ecology 21(3): 440-442. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq030

[5] Blumstein DT (2019) What chasing birds can teach us about predation risk effects: past insights and future directions. Journal of Ornithology 160(2): 587-592

[6] Blumstein DT, Fernández‐juricic E, Zollner PA y Garity SC (2005) Inter‐specific variation in avian responses to human disturbance. Journal of applied ecology 42(5): 943-953. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01071.x

[7] Blumstein DT, Anthony LL, Harcourt R y Ross G (2003) Testing a key assumption of wildlife buffer zones: is flight initiation distance a species-specific trait? Biological conservation 110(1): 97-100. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00180-5

[8] Bötsch Y, Tablado Z y Jenni L (2017) Experimental evidence of human recreational disturbance effects on bird-territory establishment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284(1858), 20170846. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0846

[9] Brown JS y Kotler BP (2004) Hazardous duty pay and the foraging cost of predation. Ecology letters 7(10): 999-1014. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00661.x

[10] Burnham KP y Anderson DR (2002) A practical information-theoretic approach. Model selection and multimodel inference

[11] Butler PJ (1991) Exercise in birds. Journal of Experimental Biology 160(1): 233-262. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.160.1.233

[12] Canevari M y Manzione M (2017) “Aves argentinas, Guía de campo digital”. Aves Argentinas/Asociación Ornitológica del Plata [Aplicación móvil]

[13] Carrete M y Tella JL (2010) Individual consistency in flight initiation distances in Burrowing Owls: a new hypothesis on disturbance-induced habitat selection. Biology letters 6(2): 167-170

[14] Cavalli M, Baladrón AV, Isacch JP, Biondi LM y Bó MS (2016) Differential risk perception of rural and urban Burrowing Owls exposed to humans and dogs. Behavioural Processes 124: 60-65

[15] Ciuti S, Pipia A, Ghiandai F, Grignolio S y Apollonio M (2008) The key role of lamb presence in affecting flight response in Sardinian Mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon). Behavioural Processes 77(3): 408-412. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2007.09.001

[16] Cooper WE (2003) Risk factors affecting escape behavior by the Desert Iguana, Dipsosaurus dorsalis: speed and directness of predator approach, degree of cover, direction of turning by a predator, and temperature. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81(6): 979-984. DOI: 10.1139/z03-079

[17] Cooper WE, Pérez-Mellado V y Hawlena D (2007) Number, speeds, and approach paths of predators affect escape behavior by the Balearic Lizard, Podarcis lilfordi. Journal of Herpetology 41(2): 197-204. DOI: 10.1670/00221511(2007)41[197:NSAAPO]2.0.CO;2

[18] Dearborn DC y Kark S (2010) Motivations for conserving urban biodiversity. Conservation biology 24(2): 432-440. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01328.x

[19] Deviche P y Davies S (2014) Reproductive phenology of urban birds: environmental cues and mechanisms. Avian urban ecology: behavioural and physiological adaptations. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 98-115

[20] Díaz M, Møller AP, Flensted-Jensen E, Grim T, Ibáñez-Álamo JD, Jokimäki J y Tryjanowski P (2013) The geography of fear: a latitudinal gradient in anti-predator escape distances of birds across Europe. PloS one 8(5), e64634. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064634

[21] Domenici P y Blake RW (1993) Escape trajectories in Angelfish (Pterophyllum eimekei). Journal of Experimental Biology 177(1): 253-272. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.177.1.253

[22] Fernández-Juricic E, Jimenez MD y Lucas E (2002) Factors affecting intra-and inter-specific variations in the difference between alert distances and flight distances for birds in forested habitats. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80(7): 1212-1220. DOI: 10.1139/z02-104

[23] Fuller RA, Warren PH, Armsworth PR, Barbosa O y Gaston KJ (2008) Garden bird feeding predicts the structure of urban avian assemblages. Diversity and Distribution, 14(1): 131-137. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00439.x

[24] Garamszegi LZ y Møller AP (2011) Nonrandom variation in within-species sample size and missing data in phylogenetic comparative studies. Systematic Biology 60(6): 876-880. DOI: 10.2307/41316585

[25] García-Arroyo M y MacGregor-Fors I (2020) Tolerant to humans? Assessment of alert and flight initiation distances of two bird species in relation to sex, flock size, and environmental characteristics. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 32(5): 445-456

[26] Gardener M (2017) Statistics for ecologists using R and Excel: Data collection, exploration, analysis and presentation. Pelagic Publishing Ltd.

[27] Grant JW y Noakes DL (1987) Escape behaviour and use of cover by young-of-the-year Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 44(8): 1390-1396

[28] Graham MH (2003) Confronting multicollinearity in ecological multiple regression. Ecology 84(11): 2809-2815. DOI: 10.1890/02-3114

[29] Griffin AS (2004) Social learning about predators: a review and prospectus. Animal Learning & Behavior 32(1): 131-140

[30] Ibáñez‐Álamo JD y Soler M (2010). Does urbanization affect selective pressures and life-history strategies in the Common Blackbird (Turdus merula L.)? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 101(4): 759-766. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01543.x

[31] Ibáñez‐Álamo JD, Rubio E, Benedetti Y y Morelli F (2017) Global loss of avian evolutionary uniqueness in urban areas. Global change biology 23(8): 2990-2998. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13567

[32] Kullberg C y Lafrenz M (2007) Escape take-off strategies in birds: the significance of protective cover. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61(10): 1555-1560