Vane Lauren S, Morris-Drake Amy, Arbon Josh J, Thomson Robyn J, Layton Megan, Kern Julie M, Radford Andrew N
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 May 22;11(5):240192. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240192. eCollection 2024 May.
Anthropogenic (man-made) noise constitutes a novel and widespread pollutant which is increasing in prevalence in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, resulting in alterations of natural soundscapes. There is proliferating evidence that noise leads to maladaptive behaviour in wildlife, yet few studies have addressed the effect on mammalian parent-offspring interactions. We investigated the impact of road noise on dwarf mongoose () offspring nearest-neighbour decision-making while foraging, using a field-based playback experiment. We predicted that offspring would forage closer to groupmates, especially adult and dominant individuals, when experiencing road noise compared with ambient sound to reduce communication masking and alleviate stress. We also predicted that noise would have a reduced effect with increasing offspring age owing to reduced reliance on adult groupmates for provisioning and predator defence. However, we found that mean nearest-neighbour distance and nearest-neighbour intrinsic characteristics (age, sex and dominance status) did not differ significantly between sound treatments, and these responses did not vary significantly with focal individual age. Noise may not impact nearest-neighbour decision-making owing to habituation from chronic natural exposure; alternatively, noise could induce stress and distraction, resulting in maladaptive decision-making. Future work should aim to detangle the underlying mechanisms mediating parent-offspring interactions in conditions of anthropogenic noise.
人为（人类制造）噪音是一种新型且广泛存在的污染物，在陆地和水生生态系统中的发生率不断上升，导致自然声景发生改变。越来越多的证据表明，噪音会导致野生动物出现适应不良的行为，但很少有研究探讨其对哺乳动物亲子互动的影响。我们通过一项基于野外的回放实验，研究了道路噪音对矮獴（）后代觅食时最近邻决策的影响。我们预测，与环境声音相比，当后代在经历道路噪音时，它们会更靠近群体成员觅食，尤其是成年和占主导地位的个体，以减少通讯掩蔽并减轻压力。我们还预测，随着后代年龄的增长，噪音的影响会减弱，因为它们对成年群体成员提供食物和抵御捕食者的依赖减少。然而，我们发现，在不同声音处理条件下，平均最近邻距离和最近邻的内在特征（年龄、性别和主导地位）没有显著差异，并且这些反应也没有随着焦点个体年龄的变化而显著变化。由于长期自然暴露导致的习惯化，噪音可能不会影响最近邻决策；或者，噪音可能会引起压力和分心，导致适应不良的决策。未来的工作应旨在理清在人为噪音条件下介导亲子互动的潜在机制。
