This noise pollution It reaches very high levels. And not only in cities, but also in some rural areas. Traffic is one of the main causes of anthropogenic noise. But it’s not just people who get stressed; animals too. The research, published in the journal ‘Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology’, concluded: human-induced noise pollution causes birds to become more aggressive.
“Human activity has a huge impact on wildlife, including their social behavior,” say researchers from Anglia Ruskin University in England and Koç University in Turkey.rubella), both in urban and rural areas.
Robins are very territorial animals. Scientists have studied aggression towards intruders using such a 3D model and accompanying it with song recordings, additional traffic noise was added in some cases via a nearby speaker.
Scientists already knew Robins rely on both visual and acoustic signals to mark their territory and keep other individuals away.and change their behavior when they feel threatened.
In addition to adapting their songs to repel intruders, visual images during territorial interactions that involve waving and showing the red hairs on his neck, as well as getting close to and trying to banish his opponent.
By recording the birds’ behavior during interactions with the simulated intruder, without the added background human noise, the researchers found: urban robins perform more physical attacks than rural robins.
Again, rural robins have become much more aggressive with the addition of traffic noise. Scientists believe that physical displays of territoriality are increased because traffic noise interferes with the signaling behavior of thrushes through song.
Impact on wildlife behavior
During tests with urban robins living in habitats with already more noise pollution, simulated traffic noise did not affect physical aggression levels, but Birds adapted to additional noise by reducing your call frequency.
The researchers suspect that because urban robins have learned to ignore temporary increases in noise, rural robins that have not learned to do so compensate for the increased physical aggression.
“We know that human activity can have a significant impact on long-term social behavior in the wild“Our results show that human-induced noise can have a variety of effects on robins, depending on the habitat they live in,” said Caglar Akçay, Senior Lecturer in Behavioral Ecology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and author of the study.
“In a normally quiet environment like the countryside, we saw this: additional traffic noise makes thrushes more physically aggressive; for example, by getting closer to the model bird and threatening more. We think this is because the noise is blocking their communication,” adds Akçay.
“Chronic high noise levels, which exist day and night in urban habitats, such as traffic or construction equipment, can permanently impede the efficient transmission of acoustic signals, and this is probably the main reason why Urban robins tend to be more aggressive than rural robins,” the researchers conclude.
The authors of the study state that: physical aggression “risky behavior” for small birds such as robins and likely to have “health consequences”.
The goal is to drive the intruder away without a fight.
“Signals are extremely helpful because they can deter an intruder without a fight, which can be costly for both the territory owner and the intruder, but if the intruder cannot hear the calls, thrushes may have to resort to physical aggression.” “, the score is also the lead author of the study, Çağla Önsal.
Again, Birds not only risk injury with their aggressive appearance, but can also “draw attention to predators”Adds researcher.
The researchers point out that a possible solution to this problem is to change the traffic signaling effort to a less noisy mode; For example, visual.
The European robin is one of the most popular birds and is easily recognized by the striking orange patch on its chest, throat and face.
It inhabits all of Europe, the Atlantic islands and North Africa, and penetrates Asia as far as the Urals and the Caspian Sea. During the winter, it disappears from the northernmost parts of Europe and Asia, expanding its range in Africa and the Near East.
It is very common in the Iberian Peninsula, Ceuta, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands in winter, but avoid the mountains, especially in the northern half. In the spring the pattern is reversed.
The European population is estimated to be between 40 and 160 million breeding pairs. It is estimated that 1.2 to 3 million couples exist in Spain. According to the results of the SEO/BirdLife monitoring program (SACRE) for common birds during the breeding season in 2005, the trend of Iberian populations was significantly positive at the time.
Reference report: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-022-03207-4
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