No evidence of predator odor avoidance in a North American bird community  

作　　者：Austin Dotta Batur Yaman Alex Van Huynh 

机构地区：[1]Department of Biology,DeSales University,2755 Station Avenue,Center Valley,PA,USA

出　　处：《Avian Research》2024年第1期133-138,共6页鸟类学研究（英文版）

摘　　要：Recent advances in our understanding of avian chemical communication have highlighted the importance of olfaction in many aspects of avian life.Prior studies investigating predator avoidance behaviors in response to predator odor cues have produced mixed results across species and contexts.Here we assess if a community of birds in eastern Pennsylvania displays avoidance behaviors towards predator odor cues in a natural foraging setting.We use clay caterpillars to measure foraging activity by birds in the presence of predator(bobcat)urine,non-predator(rabbit)urine,and water controls in two different environmental contexts(field vs.forest).Although we detected a weak trend for birds to forage less at predator urine-treated sites,we found no significant difference in avian foraging between the site types.We did find that foraging rates between environmental contexts changed significantly over the course of the experiment,with forest sites showing decreasing foraging rates and field sites showing increasing foraging rates.Our results reinforce the published literature that avoidance of predator odors by birds may not be ubiquitous across contexts and species.

关 键 词：FORAGING ODOR OLFACTION PREDATION Predator-avoidance 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]