Ethology is determined by the environmental factors that surround animals, and in the case of cities even more so. As a group of researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has discovered, birds that live in cities spend more time singing to compensate for noise, paying less attention to other tasks such as defense against possible predators.
After studying the verdigris, colonizing birds in urban areas throughout Europe, the researchers concluded that these animals compensate for the negative effects of noise by spending more time singing. As Mario Díaz, a researcher at the CSIC, at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, explains, ” these birds can spend up to 60 percent of the time singing at levels of 70 decibels .” However, everything has a limit and, as Díaz himself points out, “from that level they begin to sing less, probably because spending more time singing can interfere excessively with tasks as important as being attentive to predators or other neighboring verdigris. “.
In addition, researchers have been able to verify how these birds modify their behavior depending on the days of the week, specifically between working days and holidays.
Against any catastrophic view of the data obtained in the research, scientists have wanted to break a spear in relation to the flexibility of animals and their possible adaptations. “Our work shows that species can compensate for these variations through flexible behaviors,” explains Díaz, although he also points out that this flexibility can occur “only up to a certain point.”
This research, led by the CSIC, and published in the specialized journal Behavioral Ecology, will make it possible to more reliably predict possible changes in the distribution of animal populations based on their ability to adapt to noise.
