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Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks

Personality traits have recently been shown to impact fitness in different animal species, potentially making them similarly relevant drivers as morphological and life history traits along the evolutionary pathways of organisms. Predation is a major force of natural selection through its determinist...

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Autores principales: Santos, Carlos D., Cramer, Julia F., Pârâu, Liviu G., Miranda, Ana C., Wikelski, Martin, Dechmann, Dina K. N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4614540/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26489437
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15490
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author Santos, Carlos D.
Cramer, Julia F.
Pârâu, Liviu G.
Miranda, Ana C.
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
author_facet Santos, Carlos D.
Cramer, Julia F.
Pârâu, Liviu G.
Miranda, Ana C.
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
author_sort Santos, Carlos D.
collection PubMed
description Personality traits have recently been shown to impact fitness in different animal species, potentially making them similarly relevant drivers as morphological and life history traits along the evolutionary pathways of organisms. Predation is a major force of natural selection through its deterministic effects on individual survival, but how predation pressure has helped to shape personality trait selection, especially in free-ranging animals, remains poorly understood. We used high-precision GPS tracking to follow whole flocks of homing pigeons (Columba livia) with known personalities and morphology during homing flights where they were severely predated by raptors. This allowed us to determine how the personality and morphology traits of pigeons may affect their risk of being predated by raptors. Our survival model showed that individual pigeons, which were more tolerant to human approach, slower to escape from a confined environment, more resistant to human handling, with larger tarsi, and with lighter plumage, were more likely to be predated by raptors. We provide rare empirical evidence that the personality of prey influences their risk of being predated under free-ranging circumstances.
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spelling pubmed-46145402015-10-29 Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks Santos, Carlos D. Cramer, Julia F. Pârâu, Liviu G. Miranda, Ana C. Wikelski, Martin Dechmann, Dina K. N. Sci Rep Article Personality traits have recently been shown to impact fitness in different animal species, potentially making them similarly relevant drivers as morphological and life history traits along the evolutionary pathways of organisms. Predation is a major force of natural selection through its deterministic effects on individual survival, but how predation pressure has helped to shape personality trait selection, especially in free-ranging animals, remains poorly understood. We used high-precision GPS tracking to follow whole flocks of homing pigeons (Columba livia) with known personalities and morphology during homing flights where they were severely predated by raptors. This allowed us to determine how the personality and morphology traits of pigeons may affect their risk of being predated by raptors. Our survival model showed that individual pigeons, which were more tolerant to human approach, slower to escape from a confined environment, more resistant to human handling, with larger tarsi, and with lighter plumage, were more likely to be predated by raptors. We provide rare empirical evidence that the personality of prey influences their risk of being predated under free-ranging circumstances. Nature Publishing Group 2015-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4614540/ /pubmed/26489437 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15490 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Santos, Carlos D.
Cramer, Julia F.
Pârâu, Liviu G.
Miranda, Ana C.
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title_full Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title_fullStr Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title_full_unstemmed Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title_short Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
title_sort personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4614540/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26489437
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15490
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