Animals that thrive in urban settings show a variety of adaptations to the highly disturbed, fragmented, and human-influenced environment present in cities. One adaptation is to decrease the flight response to human disturbance while increasing alert behaviors. This change increases fitness because frequent flight in response to increased human disturbance associated with a city environment would result in decreased foraging time, increased energy expenditure and increased stress levels. I tested the flight behavior of 66 woodchucks at various levels of urbanization and observed 20 woodchucks for vigilance behavior. I collected land-use and disturbance data on-site at each burrow, and recording these data in a binary code. I used hierarchical clustering to sort burrows based on similarity of landscape and behavioral features into 4 clusters of varying degrees of urbanization. Results showed that woodchucks in the urban clusters allowed a human to approach closer than rural woodchucks (i.e., shorter flight initiation distances). Although urban woodchucks spent less time fleeing, they spent more time alert while foraging, indicating increased vigilance. These results suggest that urban woodchucks have behavioral plasticity when exposed to the frequent disturbances present in urban environments. This plasticity is reflected in their ability to adjust flight behavior to minimize energy expenditure, while increasing alert behavior so that true threats can be identified.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18827号 / 理博第4085号 / 新制||理||1587(附属図書館) / 31778 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 森 哲, 教授 沼田 英治, 教授 高橋 淑子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-06-15T18:33:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Diogo Soares Menezes Samia - 2015.pdf: 4976311 bytes, checksum: 317908c75deb4de1770cd68c544a5190 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-06-28T11:59:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Diogo Soares Menezes Samia - 2015.pdf: 4976311 bytes, checksum: 317908c75deb4de1770cd68c544a5190 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-28T11:59:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Diogo Soares Menezes Samia - 2015.pdf: 4976311 bytes, checksum: 317908c75deb4de1770cd68c544a5190 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Optimal escape theory states that animals should counterbalance the costs and benefits of flight when escaping from a potential predator. However, in apparent contradiction with this well-established optimality model, birds and mammals generally initiate escape soon after beginning to monitor an approaching threat; a phenomena codified as the “Flush Early and Avoid the Rush” (FEAR) hypothesis. Typically, the FEAR hypothesis is tested using correlational statistics and is supported when there is a strong relationship between the distance at which an individual first responds behaviorally to an approaching predator (alert distance; AD), and its flight initiation distance (the distance at which it flees the approaching predator; FID). However, such correlational statistics are both inadequate to analyze relationships constrained by an envelope (such as that in the AD-FID relationship) and are sensitive to outliers with high leverage, which can lead one to erroneous conclusions. To overcome these statistical concerns we develop the phi index (Φ), a distribution-free metric to evaluate the goodness of fit of a 1:1 relationship in a constraint envelope (the prediction of the FEAR hypothesis). Using both simulation and empirical data, we conclude that Φ is superior to traditional correlational analyses because it explicitly tests the FEAR prediction, is robust to outliers, and it controls for the disproportionate influence of observations from large predictor values (caused by the constrained envelope in AD-FID relationship). Importantly, by analyzing the empirical data we corroborate the strong effect that alertness has on flight as stated by the FEAR hypothesis. / A teoria do escape ótimo afirma que os animais devem contrabalançar os custos e benefícios da fuga quando vão escapar de um predador. No entanto, em aparente contradição com este bem-estabelecido modelo ótimo, aves e mamíferos geralmente empreendem fuga logo após inicio do monitoramento do predador em potencial; um fenômeno denominado “Flush Early and Avoid the Rush hypothesis” (a hipótese FEAR). A hipótese FEAR é geralmente testada usando estatísticas correlativas e seu suporte se dá por uma forte relação positiva entre a distância na qual um indivíduo responde comportamentalmente a um predador que se aproxima (distância de alerta; alert distance, AD) e a distância do início da fuga (flight initiation distance, FID). No entanto, o uso de estatísticas correlativas para testar a hipótese FEAR pode levar a conclusões errôneas, já que estatísticas correlativas são inadequadas para análise de relações em envelope (tais como a relação entre AD e FID) e são sensíveis a valores discrepantes (outliers) com elevado efeito de alavancagem. Por isso, nós desenvolvemos o índice fi (Φ), uma métrica não-paramétrica destinada a avaliar a qualidade do ajuste de uma relação 1:1 restrita por um envelope (tal como a observada na hipótese FEAR). Usando simulações numéricas e dados empíricos, nós concluímos que Φ é uma métrica superior às análises de correlação tradicionais porque testa explicitamente a predição da hipótese FEAR, é robusta a outiliers, e ainda controla pela influência disproporcional dos altos de AD (causado pela relação em envelope entre AD e FID). Como predito pela hipótese FEAR, a análise dos dados empíricos corroborou o forte efeito que a distância de alerta tem sobre a decisão de fuga das presas.