Do wild-caught urban house sparrows show desensitized stress responses to a novel stressor?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do wild-caught urban house sparrows show desensitized stress responses to a novel stressor?

AU - Hudin, Noraine Salleh

AU - Teyssier, Aimeric

AU - Aerts, Johan

AU - Fairhurst, Graham D.

AU - Strubbe, Diederik

AU - White, Joël

AU - De Neve, Liesbeth

AU - Lens, Luc

N1 - Correction: Do wild-caught urban house sparrows showdesensitized stress responses to a novel stressor?(doi:10.1242/bio.031849

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - While urbanization exposes individuals to novel challenges, urban areas may also constitute stable environments in which seasonal fluctuations are buffered. Baseline and stress-induced plasma corticosterone (cort) levels are often found to be similar in urban and rural populations. Here we aimed to disentangle two possible mechanisms underlying such pattern: (i) urban environments are no more stressful or urban birds have a better ability to habituate to stressors; or (ii) urban birds developed desensitized stress responses. We exposed wild-caught urban and rural house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to combined captivity and diet treatments (urban versus rural diet) and measured corticosterone levels both in natural tail feathers and in regrown homologous ones (cortf ). Urban and rural house sparrows showed similar cortf levels in the wild and in response to novel stressors caused by the experiment, supporting the growing notion that urban environments are no more stressful during the non-breeding season than are rural ones. Still, juveniles and males originating from urban populations showed the highest cortf levels in regrown feathers. We did not find evidence that cortf was consistent within individuals across moults. Our study stresses the need for incorporating both intrinsic and environmental factors for the interpretation of variation in cortf between populations.

AB - While urbanization exposes individuals to novel challenges, urban areas may also constitute stable environments in which seasonal fluctuations are buffered. Baseline and stress-induced plasma corticosterone (cort) levels are often found to be similar in urban and rural populations. Here we aimed to disentangle two possible mechanisms underlying such pattern: (i) urban environments are no more stressful or urban birds have a better ability to habituate to stressors; or (ii) urban birds developed desensitized stress responses. We exposed wild-caught urban and rural house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to combined captivity and diet treatments (urban versus rural diet) and measured corticosterone levels both in natural tail feathers and in regrown homologous ones (cortf ). Urban and rural house sparrows showed similar cortf levels in the wild and in response to novel stressors caused by the experiment, supporting the growing notion that urban environments are no more stressful during the non-breeding season than are rural ones. Still, juveniles and males originating from urban populations showed the highest cortf levels in regrown feathers. We did not find evidence that cortf was consistent within individuals across moults. Our study stresses the need for incorporating both intrinsic and environmental factors for the interpretation of variation in cortf between populations.

KW - Aviary

KW - Feather corticosterone

KW - Moult

KW - Passerines

KW - Urban exploiter

UR - https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.038513

U2 - 10.1242/bio.031849

DO - 10.1242/bio.031849

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 29632231

AN - SCOPUS:85048731413

SN - 2046-6390

VL - 7

JO - Biology Open

JF - Biology Open

IS - 6

M1 - bio031849

ER -