Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals
The Anthropocene is the era of urbanization. The accelerating expansion of cities occurs at the expense of natural reservoirs of biodiversity and presents animals with challenges for which their evolutionary past might not have prepared them. Cognitive and behavioral adjustments to novelty could pro...
Published in: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 2024-09-15T18:18:46+00:00 Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals Mazza, Valeria Czyperreck, Inken Eccard, Jana A. Dammhahn, Melanie Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution volume 9 ISSN 2296-701X journal-article 2021 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 2024-08-13T04:02:46Z The Anthropocene is the era of urbanization. The accelerating expansion of cities occurs at the expense of natural reservoirs of biodiversity and presents animals with challenges for which their evolutionary past might not have prepared them. Cognitive and behavioral adjustments to novelty could promote animals’ persistence under these altered conditions. We investigated the structure of, and covariance between, different aspects of responses to novelty in rural and urban small mammals of two non-commensal rodent species. We ran replicated experiments testing responses to three novelty types (object, food, or space) of 47 individual common voles ( Microtus arvalis ) and 41 individual striped field mice ( Apodemus agrarius ). We found partial support for the hypothesis that responses to novelty are structured, clustering (i) speed of responses, (ii) intensity of responses, and (iii) responses to food into separate dimensions. Rural and urban small mammals did not differ in most responses to novelty, suggesting that urban habitats do not reduce neophobia in these species. Further studies investigating whether comparable response patters are found throughout different stages of colonization, and along synurbanization processes of different duration, will help illuminate the dynamics of animals’ cognitive adjustments to urban life. Article in Journal/Newspaper Microtus arvalis Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9 |
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The Anthropocene is the era of urbanization. The accelerating expansion of cities occurs at the expense of natural reservoirs of biodiversity and presents animals with challenges for which their evolutionary past might not have prepared them. Cognitive and behavioral adjustments to novelty could promote animals’ persistence under these altered conditions. We investigated the structure of, and covariance between, different aspects of responses to novelty in rural and urban small mammals of two non-commensal rodent species. We ran replicated experiments testing responses to three novelty types (object, food, or space) of 47 individual common voles ( Microtus arvalis ) and 41 individual striped field mice ( Apodemus agrarius ). We found partial support for the hypothesis that responses to novelty are structured, clustering (i) speed of responses, (ii) intensity of responses, and (iii) responses to food into separate dimensions. Rural and urban small mammals did not differ in most responses to novelty, suggesting that urban habitats do not reduce neophobia in these species. Further studies investigating whether comparable response patters are found throughout different stages of colonization, and along synurbanization processes of different duration, will help illuminate the dynamics of animals’ cognitive adjustments to urban life. |
author2 |
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mazza, Valeria Czyperreck, Inken Eccard, Jana A. Dammhahn, Melanie |
spellingShingle |
Mazza, Valeria Czyperreck, Inken Eccard, Jana A. Dammhahn, Melanie Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
author_facet |
Mazza, Valeria Czyperreck, Inken Eccard, Jana A. Dammhahn, Melanie |
author_sort |
Mazza, Valeria |
title |
Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
title_short |
Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
title_full |
Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
title_fullStr |
Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cross-Context Responses to Novelty in Rural and Urban Small Mammals |
title_sort |
cross-context responses to novelty in rural and urban small mammals |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971/full |
genre |
Microtus arvalis |
genre_facet |
Microtus arvalis |
op_source |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution volume 9 ISSN 2296-701X |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.661971 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
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9 |
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1810456847461646336 |