Shen Chao, Yin Dake, Yu Jiangping, Zhang Li, Han Zheng, Jin Longru, Liang Wei, Wang Haitao
Jilin Engineering Laboratory for Avian Ecology and Conservation Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China.
Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China.
Curr Zool. 2023 Mar 25;69(1):59-65. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoac019. eCollection 2023 Feb.
Behavioral divergence among populations is common across taxonomic groups, still we know very little about anti-predator behaviors. Animal exposure to predation risk is variable in different ecological contexts. In addition, reproduction value of animals in different geographical regions usually varies. In this study, we tested whether cinereous tits in different populations exhibited nest defense behaviors similar to those of nest or adult predators and whether their nest defense behaviors showed geographical variation. By using field dummy experiments, we observed tits' nest defense behavior in nest predator common chipmunk and red squirrel , adult predator Eurasian sparrowhawk and nonthreatening species Oriental turtle dove in the ZJ (44° N), DZ (31° N), and DLS (18° N) populations, respectively. The response scores varied significantly across the 4 dummies in ZJ-tits and DLS-tits but did not in DZ-tits. When facing the chipmunk, ZJ-tits showed the highest response score and DZ-tits showed the lowest response score. When facing the squirrel, ZJ-tits showed a higher response score than tits in the other 2 populations. However, tits among the 3 populations responded similarly to a sparrowhawk or dove with slight response behaviors. In addition, response scores to nest predators were positively correlated with brood size across the 3 populations, but no trend was found for sparrowhawks or doves. Our results indicated that the nest defense behaviors of cinereous tits have evolved in response to large-scale geographical variation in ecological contexts and reproduction value.
种群间的行为差异在各个分类群中都很常见，但我们对反捕食行为却知之甚少。动物面临的捕食风险在不同的生态环境中是可变的。此外，不同地理区域动物的繁殖价值通常也有所不同。在本研究中，我们测试了不同种群的煤山雀是否表现出与巢或成年捕食者类似的巢防御行为，以及它们的巢防御行为是否存在地理变异。通过使用野外假饵实验，我们分别观察了ZJ（北纬44°）、DZ（北纬31°）和DLS（北纬18°）种群的煤山雀对巢捕食者普通花栗鼠和红松鼠、成年捕食者欧亚雀鹰以及无威胁物种东方斑鸠的巢防御行为。ZJ种群和DLS种群的煤山雀对4种假饵的反应得分差异显著，而DZ种群的煤山雀则没有。面对花栗鼠时，ZJ种群的煤山雀反应得分最高，DZ种群的煤山雀反应得分最低。面对松鼠时，ZJ种群的煤山雀反应得分高于其他两个种群的煤山雀。然而，这3个种群的煤山雀对雀鹰或斑鸠的反应相似，只是反应行为较轻微。此外，3个种群对巢捕食者的反应得分与窝卵数呈正相关，但对雀鹰或斑鸠则未发现此趋势。我们的结果表明，煤山雀的巢防御行为是为了应对生态环境和繁殖价值的大规模地理变异而进化的。
