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Brønnvik H, Nourani E, Fiedler W, Flack A. Experience reduces route selection for conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork. Curr Biol 2024; 34:2030-2037.e3. [PMID: 38636512 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
Migration can be an energetically costly behavior with strong fitness consequences in terms of mortality and reproduction.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 Migrants should select migratory routes to minimize their costs, but both costs and benefits may change with experience.12,13,14 This raises the question of whether experience changes how individuals select their migratory routes. Here, we investigate the effect of age on route selection criteria in a collectively migrating soaring bird, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). We perform step-selection analysis on a longitudinal dataset tracking 158 white storks over up to 9 years to quantify how they select their routes based on the social and atmospheric environments and to examine how this selection changes with age. We find clear ontogenetic shifts in route selection criteria. Juveniles choose routes that have good atmospheric conditions and high conspecific densities. Yet, as they gain experience, storks' selection on the availability of social information reduces-after their fifth migration, experienced birds also choose routes with low conspecific densities. Thus, our results suggest that as individuals age, they gradually replace information gleaned from other individuals with information gained from experience, allowing them to shift their migration timing and increasing the timescale at which they select their routes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hester Brønnvik
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany.
| | - Elham Nourani
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78468 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Fiedler
- Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
| | - Andrea Flack
- Collective Migration Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, 78468 Konstanz, Germany.
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Soravia C, Ashton BJ, Thornton A, Bourne AR, Ridley AR. High temperatures during early development reduce adult cognitive performance and reproductive success in a wild animal population. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 912:169111. [PMID: 38070557 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Revised: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Global warming is rapidly changing the phenology, distribution, behaviour and demography of wild animal populations. Recent studies in wild animals have shown that high temperatures can induce short-term cognitive impairment, and captive studies have demonstrated that heat exposure during early development can lead to long-term cognitive impairment. Given that cognition underpins behavioural flexibility and can be directly linked to fitness, understanding how high temperatures during early life might impact adult cognitive performance in wild animals is a critical next step to predict wildlife responses to climate change. Here, we investigated the relationship between temperatures experienced during development, adult cognitive performance, and reproductive success in wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). We found that higher mean daily maximum temperatures during nestling development led to long-term cognitive impairment in associative learning performance, but not reversal learning performance. Additionally, a higher number of hot days (exceeding 35.5 °C, temperature threshold at which foraging efficiency and offspring provisioning decline) during post-fledging care led to reduced reproductive success in adulthood. We did not find evidence that low reproductive success was linked to impaired associative learning performance: associative learning performance was not related to reproductive success. In contrast, reversal learning performance was negatively related to reproductive success in breeding adults. This suggests that reproduction can carry a cost in terms of reduced performance in cognitively demanding tasks, confirming previous evidence in this species. Taken together, these findings indicate that naturally occurring high temperatures during early development have long-term negative effects on cognition and reproductive success in wild animals. Compounding effects of high temperatures on current nestling mortality and on the long-term cognitive and reproductive performance of survivors are highly concerning given ongoing global warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla Soravia
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Benjamin J Ashton
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia; School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.
| | - Amanda R Bourne
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Australian Wildlife Conservancy, 322 Hay Street, Subiaco, WA, Australia.
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia; FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Soravia C, Ashton BJ, Thornton A, Ridley AR. High temperatures are associated with reduced cognitive performance in wild southern pied babblers. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231077. [PMID: 37989242 PMCID: PMC10688443 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Global temperatures are increasing rapidly. While considerable research is accumulating regarding the lethal and sublethal effects of heat on wildlife, its potential impact on animal cognition has received limited attention. Here, we tested wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor) on three cognitive tasks (associative learning, reversal learning and inhibitory control) under naturally occurring heat stress and non-heat stress conditions. We determined whether cognitive performance was explained by temperature, heat dissipation behaviours, individual and social attributes, or proxies of motivation. We found that temperature, but not heat dissipation behaviours, predicted variation in associative learning performance. Individuals required on average twice as many trials to learn an association when the maximum temperature during testing exceeded 38°C compared with moderate temperatures. Higher temperatures during testing were also associated with reduced inhibitory control performance, but only in females. By contrast, we found no temperature-related decline in performance in the reversal learning task, albeit individuals reached learning criterion in only 14 reversal learning tests. Our findings provide novel evidence of temperature-mediated cognitive impairment in a wild animal and indicate that its occurrence depends on the cognitive trait examined and individual sex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla Soravia
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia 6009
| | - Benjamin J. Ashton
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia 6009
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2109
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 7701
| | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Amanda R. Ridley
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia 6009
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 7701
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Krochmal AR, Roth TC. The case for investigating the cognitive map in nonavian reptiles. Anim Behav 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
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Vilk O, Campos D, Méndez V, Lourie E, Nathan R, Assaf M. Phase Transition in a Non-Markovian Animal Exploration Model with Preferential Returns. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2022; 128:148301. [PMID: 35476490 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.128.148301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
We study a non-Markovian and nonstationary model of animal mobility incorporating both exploration and memory in the form of preferential returns. Exact results for the probability of visiting a given number of sites are derived and a practical WKB approximation to treat the nonstationary problem is developed. A mean-field version of this model, first suggested by Song et al., [Modelling the scaling properties of human mobility, Nat. Phys. 6, 818 (2010)NPAHAX1745-247310.1038/nphys1760] was shown to well describe human movement data. We show that our generalized model adequately describes empirical movement data of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) when accounting for interindividual variation in the population. We also study the probability of visiting any site a given number of times and derive a mean-field equation. Our analysis yields a remarkable phase transition occurring at preferential returns which scale linearly with past visits. Following empirical evidence, we suggest that this phase transition reflects a trade-off between extensive and intensive foraging modes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ohad Vilk
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Movement Ecology Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Minerva Center for Movement Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - Daniel Campos
- Grup de Física Estadística, Dept. de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
| | - Vicenç Méndez
- Grup de Física Estadística, Dept. de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
| | - Emmanuel Lourie
- Movement Ecology Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Minerva Center for Movement Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - Ran Nathan
- Movement Ecology Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Minerva Center for Movement Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - Michael Assaf
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Institute for Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam 14476, Germany
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Wild cognition – linking form and function of cognitive abilities within a natural context. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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