Memorias de investigación
Artículos en revistas:
Great tits (Parus major) increase vigilance time and reduce feeding effort during peaks of aircraft noise
Año:2016

Áreas de investigación
  • Efectos fisiológicos,
  • Biología del comportamiento,
  • Contaminación acústica

Datos
Descripción
Antipredator vigilance may take a significant amount of time, leading to a trade-off between foraging and vigilance. Studies show that this trade-off is modulated by the perception of predation risk faced by individuals. Anthropogenic noise can disturb acoustic communication by masking both direct predator detection and the perception of conspecific alarm calls. We would expect a decrease in acoustic awareness to be compensated for by an increase in visual awareness. Thus, we tested whether increases in noise produced by commercial aircraft reduced foraging effort and increased vigilance time in great tits. We videotaped birds feeding on peanut feeders in the vicinity of Barajas airport (Madrid, Spain), and measured behavioural sequences before, during and after aircraft sound events. Our results show that, when aircraft noise peaked, the proportion of time devoted to vigilance was maximal, while that devoted to feeding was minimal. As a result, the ratio between vigilance and foraging was at its maximum when aircraft noise was loudest, being almost double that during baseline levels. The duration of vigilance episodes was strongly correlated with noise levels. Also, the duration of feeding bouts was at its lowest during the peak of noise, and increased after this period. We suggest that these behavioural modifications help foragers visually detect possible predators in those situations in which high levels of noise hamper sound perception. Our study suggests that behavioural plasticity could contribute to the resilience of avian populations exposed to anthropogenic disturbance.
Internacional
Si
JCR del ISI
Si
Título de la revista
Animal Behaviour
ISSN
0003-3472
Factor de impacto JCR
3,068
Información de impacto
Volumen
115
DOI
10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.021
Número de revista
Desde la página
29
Hasta la página
34
Mes
MAYO
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Participantes
  • Autor: J. Ignacio Klett-Mingo Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
  • Autor: Ignacio Pavon Garcia UPM
  • Autor: Diego Gil Grupo de Investigacion en Instrumentaci  on y Acústica Aplicada, Universidad Polit  ecnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain

Grupos de investigación, Departamentos, Centros e Institutos de I+D+i relacionados
  • Creador: Grupo de Investigación: Investigación en Instrumentación y Acústica Aplicada (I2A2)
  • Departamento: Ingeniería Mecánica