Increased tolerance to humans among disturbed wildlife.

Human disturbance drives the decline of many species, both directly and indirectly. Nonetheless, some species do particularly well around humans. One mechanism that may explain coexistence is the degree to which a species tolerates human disturbance. Here we provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of birds, mammals and lizards to investigate species tolerance of human disturbance and explore the drivers of this tolerance in birds. We find that, overall, disturbed populations of the three major taxa are more tolerant of human disturbance than less disturbed populations. The best predictors of the direction and magnitude of bird tolerance of human disturbance are the type of disturbed area (urbanized birds are more tolerant than rural or suburban populations) and body mass (large birds are more tolerant than small birds). By identifying specific features associated with tolerance, these results guide evidence-based conservation strategies to predict and manage the impacts of increasing human disturbance on birds

Birds flush early and avoid the rush: an interspecific study.

Since 1986, studies about the escape decisions made by prey are grounded in optimal escape theory (OET) which states that prey will initiate escape when the risk of remaining and the costs of leaving are equal. However, a recent hypothesis, Flush Early and Avoid the Rush (FEAR), acknowledged that the cost of monitoring approaching predators might be a ubiquitous cost. The FEAR hypothesis predicts that prey will generally flee soon after they detect a predator so as to minimize the costs incurred by monitoring the predator. Knowing whether animals flee to reduce monitoring costs is of applied interest because wildlife managers use escape behavior to create set-back zones to reduce human-wildlife conflict. Here we provide the most comprehensive assessment of the FEAR hypothesis using data collected from 178 bird species representing 67 families from two continents. The FEAR hypothesis explains escape behavior in 79% of studied species. Because the FEAR hypothesis is a widespread phenomenon that drives escape behavior in birds, alert distance must be systematically incorporated into the design of set-back zones to protect vulnerable species

Brain size as a driver of avian escape strategy.

After detecting an approaching predator, animals make a decision when to flee. Prey will initiate flight soon after detecting a predator so as to minimize attentional costs related to on-going monitoring of the whereabouts of the predator. Such costs may compete with foraging and other maintenance activities and hence be larger than the costs of immediate flight. The drivers of interspecific variation in escape strategy are poorly known. Here we investigated the morphological, life history and natural history traits that correlate with variation in avian escape strategy across a sample of 96 species of birds. Brain mass, body size, habitat structure and group size were the main predictors of escape strategy. The direction of the effect of these traits was consistent with selection for a reduction of monitoring costs. Therefore, attentional costs depend on relative brain size, which determines the ability to monitor the whereabouts of potential predators and the difficulty of this task as reflected by habitat and social complexity. Thus brain size, and the cognitive functions associated with it, constitute a general framework for explaining the effects of body size, habitat structure and sociality identified as determinants of avian escape strategy

Hawk models, hawk mimics, and antipredator behavior of prey

Prey typically respond to potential predators by taking flight. This results in an optimal flight initiation distance (FID) at which the risk of remaining and the cost of flight are equal. Thus, FID is strongly negatively correlated with susceptibility to predation by the sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus across species of small European birds. However, not everything that looks like a hawk is in fact a hawk. Aggressive mimicry arises from the resemblance between a dangerous model such as a predatory hawk and an innocuous mimic such as a cuckoo that makes errors made by individuals that encounter models and mimics potentially dangerous and life threatening. A prime example of such aggressive mimicry is the hawk-like appearance of common cuckoos Cuculus canorus and other cuckoos. If mimicry is efficient, we should expect that species of small birds that are prey of hawks and hosts of cuckoos react just as strongly to a cuckoo as to the presence of a dangerous model like a sparrowhawk. We used FID of small birds as a measure of the reaction of prey to models and mimics, predicting that FID would be negatively related to susceptibility to predation and positively to risk of cuckoo parasitism. Both susceptibility to sparrowhawk predation and rate of brood parasitism by the common cuckoo independently explained variation in FID, consistent with the expectation that both hawks and cuckoos have imposed significant selection pressures on FID and that species of small birds perceive cuckoos as true mimics of hawks

Sex differences in lizard escape decisions vary with latitude, but not sexual dimorphism

Sexual selection is a powerful evolutionary mechanism that has shaped the physiology, behaviour and morphology of the sexes to the extent that it can reduce viability while promoting traits that enhance reproductive success. Predation is one of the underlying mechanisms accounting for viability costs of sexual displays. Therefore, we should expect that individuals of the two sexes adjust their anti-predator behaviour in response to changes in predation risk. We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 studies (42 species) of sex differences in risk-taking behaviour in lizards and tested whether these differences could be explained by sexual dichromatism, by sexual size dimorphism or by latitude. Latitude was the best predictor of the interspecific heterogeneity in sex-specific behaviour. Males did not change their escape behaviour with latitude, whereas females had increasingly reduced wariness at higher latitudes. We hypothesize that this sex difference in risk-taking behaviour is linked to sex-specific environmental constraints that more strongly affect the reproductive effort of females than males. This novel latitudinal effect on sex-specific anti-predator behaviour has important implications for responses to climate change and for the relative roles of natural and sexual selection in different species

American exceptionalism: population trends and flight initiation distances in birds from three continents.

BackgroundAll organisms may be affected by humans' increasing impact on Earth, but there are many potential drivers of population trends and the relative importance of each remains largely unknown. The causes of spatial patterns in population trends and their relationship with animal responses to human proximity are even less known.Methodology/principal findingWe investigated the relationship between population trends of 193 species of bird in North America, Australia and Europe and flight initiation distance (FID); the distance at which birds take flight when approached by a human. While there is an expected negative relationship between population trend and FID in Australia and Europe, we found the inverse relationship for North American birds; thus FID cannot be used as a universal predictor of vulnerability of birds. However, the analysis of the joint explanatory ability of multiple drivers (farmland breeding habitat, pole-most breeding latitude, migratory habit, FID) effects on population status replicated previously reported strong effects of farmland breeding habitat (an effect apparently driven mostly by European birds), as well as strong effects of FID, body size, migratory habit and continent. Farmland birds are generally declining.Conclusions/significanceFlight initiation distance is related to population trends in a way that differs among continents opening new research possibilities concerning the causes of geographic differences in patterns of anti-predator behavior