School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Biol Lett. 2018 Apr;14(4). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0730.
As the natural habitats of many species are degraded or disappear, there is scope for these species to be established in urban habitats. To ease the establishment and maintenance of urban populations of more species we need to better understand what degree of phenotypical change to expect as different species transition into urban environments. During the first stages of urban colonization, behavioural changes such as an increase in boldness are particularly important. A consistent response in urban populations is to decrease the distance at which individuals flee from an approaching human (flight initiation distance, or FID). Performing a phylogenetic generalized least-squares (PGLS) analysis on 130 avian species, I found that the largest changes in FID between rural and urban populations occur in species that are larger-bodied and naturally shy (higher rural FID), two phenotypic traits that are not normally associated with urban colonizers. More unlikely species may thus be able to colonize urban environments, especially if we design cities in ways that promote such urban colonizations.
随着许多物种的自然栖息地退化或消失，这些物种在城市栖息地中建立的范围扩大了。为了促进更多物种在城市环境中的建立和维持，我们需要更好地了解不同物种进入城市环境时会发生多大程度的表型变化。在城市殖民的早期阶段，行为上的变化，如大胆性的增加，是特别重要的。在城市种群中一个一致的反应是减少个体从接近的人类（逃离起始距离，或 FID）逃离的距离。对 130 种鸟类进行系统发育广义最小二乘法（PGLS）分析后，我发现 FID 在农村和城市种群之间的最大变化发生在体型较大且生性害羞的物种（农村 FID 较高）中，这两个表型特征通常与城市殖民者无关。因此，不太可能的物种可能能够在城市环境中殖民，特别是如果我们以促进这种城市殖民的方式来设计城市。
