INTERACTION OF TURDUS LEUCOMELAS WITH CRYPTIC AND APOSEMATIC PREYS: INATE BEHAVIOR IN RURAL AND URBAN INDIVIDUALS?

• Grant number: 23/10916-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira
• Grantee: Sonia Violante Ptasznik
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Rural and urban environments differ in several aspects with consequences for characteristics related to the behavior and personality of different groups of animals. However, little is known about how much of this behavioral differentiation between rural and urban populations is acquired or inherited, and how these differences can affect complex behaviors, such as the recognition of aposematic patterns in potential prey. With that in mind, this work aims to evaluate whether there is a difference in the predisposition to interact with aposematic artificial prey among gully thrushes (Turdus leucomelas) from rural and urban environments and reared in controlled captivity conditions from the nestling stage. Thirty gully thrushes were captured between their 6th and 7th day of life in cities in the interior of the State of São Paulo and raised by hand as part of another research project, 18 from the urban area and 12 from the rural area. For this study, cryptic artificial prey will be produced in greenish color, and aposematic, with yellow and black colors, thus evaluating whether certain individuals of thrushes will be more likely to attack aposematic prey than others. The hypotheses tested should answer whether 1) there is a difference in the interaction time and a number of thrush pecks with cryptic and aposematic prey, indicating that they react innately, 2) the reactions to the color patterns are consistent at the individual level, that is, they are related to their personality and 3) thrushes from urban areas are more likely to peck at the aposematic artificial prey, indicating a more audacious personality in relation to thrushes from rural areas. At the end of the project, these results will be compared with their naturalness, thus finding out if there is a genetic relationship between the behaviors presented.