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Behavioral DiverCity: individual differences in behavior change along an urbanization gradient.
Laura Gervais1,2, Megan J Thompson1,3, Pierre de Villemereuil4,5
1CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France.
Summary
Urbanization impacts bird behavior, increasing individual differences in stress and anti-predator responses but decreasing variation in novelty-coping behaviors. This highlights varied effects of urban environments on animal behavior.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Urbanization is a global phenomenon altering ecosystems.
- Understanding how anthropogenic changes affect individual variation in behavior is crucial for eco-evolutionary insights.
- Limited knowledge exists on how urbanization modifies phenotypic variation, especially in behavioral traits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how urbanization affects individual variation in behavioral traits.
- To examine stress reactivity, anti-predator response, and novelty-coping behaviors in urban versus forest-dwelling great tits.
- To determine if individual behavioral differences increase with urbanization and spatial environmental heterogeneity.
Main Methods:
- Phenotyped over 1000 great tits (Parus major) over 9 years along an urbanization gradient.
- Assessed breath rate, handling aggression, and exploration behavior as proxies for stress, anti-predator, and novelty-coping traits.
- Employed both city vs. forest comparisons and a continuous urbanization gradient approach.
Main Results:
- Urban great tits exhibited greater diversity in stress-related (breath rate) and anti-predator (handling aggression) behaviors compared to forest counterparts.
- Exploratory behavior showed more similarity among urban individuals than forest individuals.
- No significant evidence indicated changes in individual variation across traits with increasing percentage of built-up areas.
Conclusions:
- Generalizations about behavioral trait responses to urbanization are unlikely across all behavioral dimensions.
- Urban environments can lead to decreased individual diversity in specific behavioral traits, such as those related to novelty-coping.
- The study underscores the complex and trait-specific impacts of urbanization on animal behavior and individual variation.
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