The applicability of human mobility scaling laws on animals-A Herring Gull case study.

With the development of sensors, recording and availability of high-resolution movement data from animals and humans, two disciplines have rapidly developed: human mobility and movement ecology. Addressing methodological gaps between these two mobility fields could improve the understanding of movement processes and has been defined as the Integrated Science of Movement. We apply well-known human mobility metrics and data processing methods to Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking data of European Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) to test the usefulness of these methods for explaining animal mobility behavior. We use stop detection, spatial aggregation, and for the first time on animal movement data, two approaches to temporal aggregation (Next Time-Bin and Next Place). We also calculate from this data a set of movement statistics (visitation frequency, distinct locations over time, and radius of gyration). Furthermore, we analyze and compare the gull and human data from the perspective of scaling laws commonly used for human mobility. The results confirm those of previous studies and indicate differences in movement parameters between the breeding season and other parts of the year. This paper also shows that methods used in human mobility analysis have the potential to improve our understanding of animal behavior.

Individual Heterozygosity Influences Arrival Times and Mating Success of Male Red-Breasted Flycatchers Ficedula parva.

We examined the relationship between individual heterozygosity of male Red-breasted Flycatchers (Ficedula parva; a small long-distance migratory, socially monogamous bird species) and their mating success, arrival time and age. Using eight polymorphic microsatellite loci, we found that male heterozygosity is related to both mating success and arrival time, but not to age. Mated and earlier arriving males had higher heterozygosity than later arrivals and bachelors, but we did not find a relationship between age and individual heterozygosity of males. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence about the relationship between individual genetic diversity and arrival time, thus arrival time could be used as a signal of individual heterozygosity and quality.

Campylobacter in wintering great tits Parus major in Poland.

Domestic and wild mammals, domestic birds and particularly wild birds are considered to be reservoirs of many species of Enterobacteriaceae, and also important human enteric pathogens, e.g., the bacteria of the genus Campylobacter that occur in their digestive tracts. These species may be vectors of antimicrobial resistance dissemination in the environment, because they may have contact with an environment contaminated with antibiotics. Bird feeders have been suggested as potential dispersal centres between wild wintering birds whose feeding is supported by humans. Therefore, we checked for the presence of Campylobacter bacteria among great tits Parus major, the most common bird species on bird feeders in Poland. Samples (n = 787 cloacal swabs) were collected in urban and rural areas of Poland. Bacterial species were identified using multiplex PCR, and 23 (2.9%) positive tests for Campylobacter spp. were found; in ten samples, C. jejuni was detected. The odds ratio of Campylobacter infection in rural birds was over 2.5 times higher than urban birds. Ten samples with C. jejuni were tested for antibiotic resistance, and all were sensitive to azithromycin, erythromycin and gentamycin, while six isolates were resistant to tetracycline, and five were resistant to ciprofloxacin. Four Campylobacter isolates were resistant to both these antibiotics.

Early arriving males wait longer for a mate than later arrivals: the case of a migratory monogamous passerine bird species.

Individuals that arrive earlier on the breeding grounds may obtain many advantages but they also have to spend time waiting for a mate. I studied the waiting times of male red-breasted flycatchers Ficedula parva, a small, migratory, sexually dichromatic passerine bird species under natural conditions (Bialowieza National Park, Poland) in relation to year, arrival time, age of male and morphological parameters. The length of waiting time was dependent on males' arrival time. The males which arrived later waited a shorter time for females than earlier arrivals. In some years older males spent more time waiting for mates than younger males, but in other years they waited for shorter times. A significant interaction between age of male and year was also observed. Despite the significantly earlier arrival of older males, the waiting time was not related to male age. The waiting time was also not related to body biometric parameters of the male. Despite waiting longer, early male red-breasted flycatchers have an advantage over later arrivals given this greater chance of mating.

Weather Conditions Influence Egg Volume Repeatability in Clutches of the Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio.

Artur Golawski and Cezary Mitrus (2018) Birds show considerable variation in egg size, both within and between clutches. There are many factors affecting egg dimensions including features of the birds themselves, territory quality, food abundance and weather conditions. One feature that varies in clutches is repeatability of egg dimensions within a clutch. We studied variation in egg size in clutches of the Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio in east-central Poland and examined the effects of territory quality and weather conditions on egg size repeatability. Repeatability of egg size was low and ranged from 0.51 to 0.55. No significant differences in egg dimensions were found between clutch size classes (3 to 7 eggs, modal clutch size of 6). Weather conditions only influenced repeatability of egg volume. This parameter was affected by the year and one environmental factor - total rainfall immediately before egg laying. With increasing rainfall, the repeatability of egg volume decreased. Weather conditions can influence food availability and in this way also affect egg size. The Red- backed Shrike diet consists mainly of insects, the activity of which significantly decreased during rainfall. In such conditions, birds have to spend more energy to gain food, which could consequently lead to differences in egg size.

Urbanization affects neophilia and risk-taking at bird-feeders.

Urban environments cover vast areas with a high density of humans and their dogs and cats causing problems for exploitation of new resources by wild animals. Such resources facilitate colonization by individuals with a high level of neophilia predicting that urban animals should show more neophilia than rural conspecifics. We provided bird-feeders across urban environments in 14 Polish cities and matched nearby rural habitats, testing whether the presence of a novel item (a brightly coloured green object made out of gum with a tuft of hair) differentially delayed arrival at feeders in rural compared to urban habitats. The presence of a novel object reduced the number of great tits Parus major, but also the total number of all species of birds although differentially so in urban compared to rural areas. That was the case independent of the potentially confounding effects of temperature, population density of birds, and the abundance of cats, dogs and pedestrians. The number of great tits and the total number of birds attending feeders increased in urban compared to rural areas independent of local population density of birds. This implies that urban birds have high levels of neophilia allowing them to readily exploit unpredictable resources in urban environments.

Who started first? Bird species visiting novel birdfeeders.

Adapting to exploit new food sources may be essential, particularly in winter, when the impact of food limitation on survival of individuals is critical. One of the most important additional sources of food for birds in human settlements is birdfeeders. At a large spatial scale, we experimentally provided birdfeeders with four different kinds of food to analyze exploitation and use of a novel food supply provided by humans. Nine species started foraging at the new birdfeeders. The species that exploited the new feeders the fastest was the great tit. Use of novel food sources was faster in urban habitats and the presence of other feeders reduced the time until a new feeder was located. Urbanization may be associated with behavioural skills, technical innovations and neophilia resulting in faster discovery of new food sources. This process is accelerated by the experience of feeder use in the vicinity, with a strong modifying effect of the number of domestic cats.

Badge size and arrival time predict mating success of red-breasted flycatcher Ficedula parva males.

Older red-breasted flycatcher males (after the second year) have an orange patch on the throat and breast. To date, the occurrence of this ornament has been explained in terms of male-male interactions. In this paper, we show that badge size also influences the mating success of red-breasted-flycatcher males. In addition to the size of the ornament, arrival time was a second factor related to the males' mating success, but no effects of body parameters such as wing length, tarsus length, and body mass were observed. Mated males arrived significantly earlier than unmated ones. The arrival time of males was negatively correlated to body mass and positively correlated to tarsus length but no relation to wing length or badge size was observed. No correlations between badge size and body parameters were observed. This ornament was evolved through sexual selection, with both male-male interaction and selection pressure arising from female preference for males with larger badges.