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How close can we get? Tolerance to human approximation of invasive doves vs. native doves

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Abstract

Human disturbance might be perceived as a threat by animals and interfere in their vital activities. Urbanisation generates changes in habitat structure that allows only a low number of species to adapt, which results in a decrease of species richness and an increase of the abundance of a few dominant species. To survive in urbanised areas, animals need to be highly tolerant to human approximation. One key characteristic of successful invasive species is their high behavioural plasticity. This plasticity could translate to higher chances of surviving in urbanised areas and becoming tough competitors for native species. The Eurasian collared-dove is a successful invader in Europe, it arrived to México during the nineties and has been spreading in the country since. We compared its tolerance to human approximation to that of the already well-established feral pigeon and other native species in agricultural and urban sites. We found the Eurasian collared-dove is less tolerant to humans than the feral pigeon, but more tolerant than native species. Also, we observed that birds showed higher tolerance to humans in urban areas than in agricultural sites, regardless of the species. Interestingly, feral pigeons restrained their distribution to human settlements, and acting as a counterpart, common ground doves were only found in rural sites. However, the Eurasian collared-dove was present also in agricultural areas, which could suggest the Eurasian collared-dove represents a higher threat than the feral pigeon for native species in our study area. We highlight the importance to further understand the behavioural traits that could promote the Eurasian collared-dove invasion to better design management plans for dove diversity in urban areas.

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Availability of data and material

Data base of observations made for this study is provided as supplementary material.

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The script used to perform the analysis in the statistical software R is provided as supplementary material.

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Funding

The present study was carried out using the Institutional Funds of the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, UNAM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UNAM, Tlalnepantla, México

    Monserrat Suárez-Rodríguez

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, UNAM Campus Morelia, Morelia, México

    Jorge E. Schondube

  3. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Ciudad Universitaria UNAM, CDMX, México

    Morelia Camacho-Cervantes

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  1. Monserrat Suárez-Rodríguez
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  2. Jorge E. Schondube
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  3. Morelia Camacho-Cervantes
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Contributions

MCC and JES designed the experiment, MCC collected the data, MSR analysed the data and wrote the first manuscript draft, all authors contributed to the final written version of this article.

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Correspondence to Morelia Camacho-Cervantes.

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Suárez-Rodríguez, M., Schondube, J.E. & Camacho-Cervantes, M. How close can we get? Tolerance to human approximation of invasive doves vs. native doves. Urban Ecosyst 26, 117–125 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01286-9

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