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Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos

Flight-initiation distance (FID), the distance between an individual and experimenter when it begins to flee, can be used to quantify risk-assessment. Among other factors, prior studies have shown that latitude explains significant variation in avian FID: at lower latitudes, individuals and species...

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Autores principales: Andrade, Madelin, Blumstein, Daniel T
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7234012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32440284
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz046
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author Andrade, Madelin
Blumstein, Daniel T
author_facet Andrade, Madelin
Blumstein, Daniel T
author_sort Andrade, Madelin
collection PubMed
description Flight-initiation distance (FID), the distance between an individual and experimenter when it begins to flee, can be used to quantify risk-assessment. Among other factors, prior studies have shown that latitude explains significant variation in avian FID: at lower latitudes, individuals and species have longer FIDs than those living at higher latitudes. No prior studies have focused on the effect of elevation on FID. Given the similar patterns of seasonality, climate, and potentially predator density, that covary between latitude and elevation, birds at higher elevations might tolerate closer approaches. We asked whether elevation or latitude would explain more variation in the FID of a common passerine bird species, dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Juncos live in a variety of habitats along both latitudinal and elevational gradients. We found that statistical models containing elevation as a variable explained more of the variation in FID than did models containing latitude. We also found, unexpectedly, that birds at higher elevation fled at greater distances. While more predators were sighted per hour at higher elevations than at lower elevations, the frequency of predator sightings did not explain a significant amount of variation in FID. This result questions whether predator density is the main driver of risk perception along elevational gradients. Nonetheless, because elevation explains more variation in FID than latitude in at least one species, these findings have direct implications on how human impacts on birds are managed. Specifically, those designing set-back zones to reduce human impact on birds may consider modifying them based on both latitude and elevation.
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spelling pubmed-72340122020-05-21 Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos Andrade, Madelin Blumstein, Daniel T Curr Zool Articles Flight-initiation distance (FID), the distance between an individual and experimenter when it begins to flee, can be used to quantify risk-assessment. Among other factors, prior studies have shown that latitude explains significant variation in avian FID: at lower latitudes, individuals and species have longer FIDs than those living at higher latitudes. No prior studies have focused on the effect of elevation on FID. Given the similar patterns of seasonality, climate, and potentially predator density, that covary between latitude and elevation, birds at higher elevations might tolerate closer approaches. We asked whether elevation or latitude would explain more variation in the FID of a common passerine bird species, dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Juncos live in a variety of habitats along both latitudinal and elevational gradients. We found that statistical models containing elevation as a variable explained more of the variation in FID than did models containing latitude. We also found, unexpectedly, that birds at higher elevation fled at greater distances. While more predators were sighted per hour at higher elevations than at lower elevations, the frequency of predator sightings did not explain a significant amount of variation in FID. This result questions whether predator density is the main driver of risk perception along elevational gradients. Nonetheless, because elevation explains more variation in FID than latitude in at least one species, these findings have direct implications on how human impacts on birds are managed. Specifically, those designing set-back zones to reduce human impact on birds may consider modifying them based on both latitude and elevation. Oxford University Press 2020-06 2019-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7234012/ /pubmed/32440284 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz046 Text en © The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Editorial Office, Current Zoology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Articles
Andrade, Madelin
Blumstein, Daniel T
Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title_full Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title_fullStr Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title_full_unstemmed Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title_short Anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
title_sort anti-predator behavior along elevational and latitudinal gradients in dark-eyed juncos
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7234012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32440284
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz046
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