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Urbanized birds have superior establishment success in novel environments

  • Conservation ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Many animals have adapted to the proximity of humans and thereby gained an advantage in a world increasingly affected by human activity. Numerous organisms have invaded novel areas and thereby increased their range. Here, we hypothesize that an ability to thrive in urban habitats is a key innovation that facilitates successful establishment and invasion. We test this hypothesis by relating the probability of establishment by birds on oceanic islands to the difference in breeding population density between urban and nearby rural habitats as a measure of urbanization in the ancestral range. This measure was the single-most important predictor of establishment success and the only statistically significant one, with additional effects of sexual dichromatism, number of releases and release effort, showing that the ability to cope with human proximity is a central component of successful establishment. Because most invasions occur as a consequence of human-assisted establishment, the ability to cope with human proximity will often be of central importance for successful establishment.

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Acknowledgments

J.J. received support from the EU Regional Development Fund via the projects “Rovaniemen kaupunkilintuatlas”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, CNRS UMR 8079, Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 362, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

    Anders Pape Møller

  2. Department of Biogeography and Global Change, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (BGC-MNCN-CSIC), 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Mario Díaz

  3. Cypresvej 1, 9700, Brønderslev, Denmark

    Einar Flensted-Jensen

  4. Laboratory of Ornithology and Department of Zoology, Palacky University, 77146, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Tomas Grim

  5. Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Universitario de Fuentenueva s/n, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo

  6. Nature Inventory and EIA-services, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, P. O. Box 122, 96101, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Jukka Jokimäki

  7. Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 51014, Tartu, Estonia

    Raivo Mänd

  8. Ecology Research Group, MTA-ELTE-MTM, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor Markó

  9. Department of Plant Pathology, Corvinus University of Budapest, Ménesi Út 44, 1118, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor Markó

  10. Behavioral Ecology Group, Department of Systematics, Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor Markó

  11. Institute of Zoology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71C, 60-625, Poznan, Poland

    Piotr Tryjanowski

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  1. Anders Pape Møller
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  2. Mario Díaz
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  4. Tomas Grim
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  5. Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo
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  6. Jukka Jokimäki
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  7. Raivo Mänd
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  8. Gábor Markó
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anders Pape Møller.

Additional information

Communicated by Ola Olsson.

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Møller, A.P., Díaz, M., Flensted-Jensen, E. et al. Urbanized birds have superior establishment success in novel environments. Oecologia 178, 943–950 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3268-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3268-8

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