Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Biodiversité Nordique and Centre d'études Nordiques, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.
Biol Lett. 2013 Aug 21;9(5):20130417. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0417. Print 2013 Oct 23.
Behavioural responses can help species persist in habitats modified by humans. Roads and traffic greatly affect animals' mortality not only through habitat structure modifications but also through direct mortality owing to collisions. Although species are known to differ in their sensitivity to the risk of collision, whether individuals can change their behaviour in response to this is still unknown. Here, we tested whether common European birds changed their flight initiation distances (FIDs) in response to vehicles according to road speed limit (a known factor affecting killing rates on roads) and vehicle speed. We found that FID increased with speed limit, although vehicle speed had no effect. This suggests that birds adjust their flight distance to speed limit, which may reduce collision risks and decrease mortality maximizing the time allocated to foraging behaviours. Mobility and territory size are likely to affect an individuals' ability to respond adaptively to local speed limits.
行为反应可以帮助物种在人类改造的栖息地中生存。道路和交通不仅通过改变栖息地结构，而且通过直接的碰撞导致的死亡率，极大地影响了动物的死亡率。虽然已知物种对碰撞风险的敏感性不同，但个体是否能够根据这种情况改变自己的行为仍不清楚。在这里，我们根据道路限速（已知影响道路死亡率的因素）和车辆速度，测试了常见的欧洲鸟类是否会根据车辆的不同而改变其飞行起始距离（FID）。我们发现，FID 随限速的增加而增加，尽管车辆速度没有影响。这表明鸟类会根据限速调整其飞行距离，这可能会降低碰撞风险，减少死亡率，使觅食行为的时间最大化。移动性和领地大小可能会影响个体适应本地限速的能力。
