Hernández-Brito Dailos, Tella José L, Blanco Guillermo, Carrete Martina
Department of Conservation Biology, Doñana Biological Station (CSIC), Calle Américo Vespucio, 26, Sevilla 41092, Spain.
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, Madrid 28006, Spain.
Curr Zool. 2021 Nov 23;68(6):617-626. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoab097. eCollection 2022 Dec.
Certain traits of recipient environments, such as the availability of limiting resources, strongly determine the establishment success and spread of non-native species. These limitations may be overcome through behavioral plasticity, allowing them to exploit alternative resources. Here, we show how a secondary cavity nester bird, the rose-ringed parakeet , innovates its nesting behavior as a response to the shortage of tree cavities for nesting in its invasive range in Tenerife (Canary Islands). We observed that some breeding pairs excavated their own nest cavities in palms, thus becoming primary cavity nester, whereas others occupied nests built with wood sticks by another invasive species, the monk parakeet . The use of these novel nesting strategies increased the number of breeding pairs by up to 52% over 6 years, contributing to a 128.8% increase of the whole population. Innovative nests were located at greater heights above ground and were more aggregated around conspecifics but did not result in greater breeding success than natural cavities. Occupation of monk parakeet colonies by rose-ringed parakeets also benefited the former species through a protective-nesting association against nest predators. Our results show how an invasive species innovate nesting behaviors and increase nest-site availability in the recipient environment, thus facilitating its population growth and invasion process. Potential behavioral innovations in other invasive rose-ringed parakeet populations may be overlooked, and should be considered for effective management plans.
受纳环境的某些特征，如有限资源的可利用性，在很大程度上决定了非本地物种的建立成功与否及其扩散情况。这些限制可以通过行为可塑性来克服，使它们能够利用替代资源。在此，我们展示了一种次级洞巢鸟——玫瑰环鹦鹉，如何在特内里费岛（加那利群岛）的入侵范围内，因筑巢树洞短缺而创新其筑巢行为。我们观察到，一些繁殖对会在棕榈树上挖掘自己的巢洞，从而变成初级洞巢鸟，而另一些则占据另一种入侵物种和尚鹦鹉用木棍搭建的巢穴。在6年时间里，这些新颖筑巢策略的采用使繁殖对的数量增加了多达52%，促使整个种群数量增长了128.8%。创新巢穴位于离地面更高的地方，并且在同种个体周围更密集，但与天然树洞相比，并没有带来更高的繁殖成功率。玫瑰环鹦鹉对和尚鹦鹉巢穴的占据，也通过与巢穴捕食者形成保护性筑巢关联而使前者受益。我们的研究结果表明，一个入侵物种如何创新筑巢行为并增加受纳环境中的巢址可用性，从而促进其种群增长和入侵进程。其他入侵的玫瑰环鹦鹉种群中潜在的行为创新可能被忽视了，在有效的管理计划中应予以考虑。
