The nuthatch and the hare: Slow explorers dominate in a re-established population of the Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) two decades later

Avian Conservation and Ecology

article

Mary Mack Gray¹  Kathryn E. Sieving²  James A. Cox¹ 

[1] Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy;University of Florida, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

关键词: animal personality;    exploratory behavior;    Florida;    reintroduction;    Sitta pusilla;    translocation;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ACE-02111-170107

学科分类：口腔科学

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Animal behavior regularly has substantial effects on the outcomes of reintroduction efforts.Reintroduction involves capturing a subset of individuals from a source population and releasingthem into novel environments where variation in retention rates, predation, and territoryacquisition could affect the age-class structure, sex ratio, and genetic and phenotypiccharacteristics of restored populations. Exploratory behavior, quantified as the rate thatindividuals explore novel settings, is one such heritable trait that might be affected bytranslocation, especially given recent studies suggesting that exploratory behavior can predict thesurvival and retention of individuals in unfamiliar environments. To assess the potential effectsthat translocation may have on exploratory behavior, we compared exploratory behavior for threeBrown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) populations: (1) a population reintroduced to EvergladesNational Park in 1998; (2) a population close to the original source population, and (3) a distantcontrol population in north Florida. Exploratory behavior was quantified by placing individuals(n=17 per population) in an exploratory chamber and comparing flights/hops, scanning events,thoroughness of exploration, and other movement behaviors. We found that individuals in thereintroduced population scanned less, conducted fewer flights/hops, and were more sedentary thanindividuals in the other populations. Our findings suggest a shift in the prevalence of personalitytypes toward slow explorers has taken place in the 20 years since reintroduction, adding to otherstudies suggesting that slow explorers fare better in novel environments. Although the reintroducedpopulation contained fewer fast-exploring individuals relative to the other populations studied,fast-explorer phenotypes may increase over time if they convey the fitness benefits described in other studies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY