Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gordo O
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7944088 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The ubiquitous activity of humans is a fundamental feature of urban environments affecting local wildlife in several ways. Testing the influence of human disturbance would ideally need experimental approach, however, in cities, this is challenging at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Thus, to better understand the ecological effects of human activity, we exploited the opportunity that the city-wide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided during the spring of 2020. We assessed changes in reproductive success of great tits (Parus major) at two urban habitats affected strikingly differently by the 'anthropause', and at an unaffected forest site. Our results do not support that urban great tits benefited from reduced human mobility during the lockdown. First, at one of our urban sites, the strongly (- 44%) reduced human disturbance in 2020 (compared to a long-term reference period) did not increase birds' reproductive output relative to the forest habitat where human disturbance was low in all years. Second, in the other urban habitat, recreational human activity considerably increased (+ 40%) during the lockdown and this was associated with strongly reduced nestling body size compared to the pre-COVID reference year. Analyses of other environmental factors (meteorological conditions, lockdown-induced changes in air pollution) suggest that these are not likely to explain our results. Our study supports that intensified human disturbance can have adverse fitness consequences in urban populations. It also highlights that a few months of 'anthropause' is not enough to counterweight the detrimental impacts of urbanization on local wildlife populations.
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Project description:Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many people around the world stayed home, drastically altering human activity in cities. This exceptional moment provided researchers the opportunity to test how urban animals respond to human disturbance, in some cases testing fundamental questions on the mechanistic impact of urban behaviours on animal behaviour. However, at the end of this 'anthropause', human activity returned to cities. How might each of these strong shifts affect wildlife in the short and long term? We focused on fear response, a trait essential to tolerating urban life. We measured flight initiation distance-at both individual and population levels-for an urban bird before, during and after the anthropause to examine if birds experienced longer-term changes after a year and a half of lowered human presence. Dark-eyed juncos did not change fear levels during the anthropause, but they became drastically less fearful afterwards. These surprising and counterintuitive findings, made possible by following the behaviour of individuals over time, has led to a novel understanding that fear response can be driven by plasticity, yet not habituation-like processes. The pandemic-caused changes in human activity have shown that there is great complexity in how humans modify a behavioural trait fundamental to urban tolerance in animals.
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Project description:Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrated the efficacy of a novel Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme for the treatment of Non-Rapid Eye Movement Parasomnias (CBT-NREMP) in reducing NREM parasomnia events, insomnia and associated mood severities. Given the increased prevalence and worsening of sleep and affective disorders during the pandemic, we examined the sustainability of CBT-NREMP following the U.K.'s longest COVID-19 lockdown (6 January 2021-19 July 2021) by repeating the investigations via a mail survey in the same 46 patient cohort, of which 12 responded. The survey included validated clinical questionnaires relating to NREM parasomnia (Paris Arousal Disorder Severity Scale), insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index) and anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Patients also completed a targeted questionnaire (i.e., Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown Questionnaire, ICLQ) to assess the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on NREM parasomnia severity, mental health, general well-being and lifestyle. Clinical measures of NREM parasomnia, insomnia, anxiety and depression remained stable, with no significant changes demonstrated in questionnaire scores by comparison to the previous investigatory period prior to the COVID-19 pandemic: p (ISI) = 1.0; p (HADS) = 0.816; p (PADSS) = 0.194. These findings support the longitudinal effectiveness of CBT-NREMP for up to three years following the clinical intervention, and despite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Project description:BackgroundCovid-status certification - certificates for those who test negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, test positive for antibodies, or who have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 - has been proposed to enable safer access to a range of activities. Realising these benefits will depend in part upon the behavioural and social impacts of certification. The aim of this rapid review was to describe public attitudes towards certification, and its possible impact on uptake of testing and vaccination, protective behaviours, and crime.MethodA search was undertaken in peer-reviewed databases, pre-print databases, and the grey literature, from 2000 to December 2020. Studies were included if they measured attitudes towards or behavioural consequences of health certificates based on one of three indices of Covid-19 status: test-negative result for current infectiousness, test-positive for antibodies conferring natural immunity, or vaccination(s) conferring immunity.ResultsThirty-three papers met the inclusion criteria, only three of which were rated as low risk of bias. Public attitudes were generally favourable towards the use of immunity certificates for international travel, but unfavourable towards their use for access to work and other activities. A significant minority was strongly opposed to the use of certificates of immunity for any purpose. The limited evidence suggested that intention to get vaccinated varied with the activity enabled by certification or vaccination (e.g., international travel). Where vaccination is seen as compulsory this could lead to unwillingness to accept a subsequent vaccination. There was some evidence that restricting access to settings and activities to those with antibody test certificates may lead to deliberate exposure to infection in a minority. Behaviours that reduce transmission may decrease upon health certificates based on any of the three indices of Covid-19 status, including physical distancing and handwashing.ConclusionsThe limited evidence suggests that health certification in relation to COVID-19 - outside of the context of international travel - has the potential for harm as well as benefit. Realising the benefits while minimising the harms will require real-time evaluations allowing modifications to maximise the potential contribution of certification to enable safer access to a range of activities.
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