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Sex matters: European urban birds flee approaching women sooner than approaching men

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cris.virtual.author-orcid0000-0002-8358-0797
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cris.virtualsource.author-orcid362c6679-6484-44a9-a5b6-eaf80f4cee38
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dc.abstract.en1. Flight initiation distance (FID) is a metric often used to study an individual's perceptions of risk when facing a predatory threat. Longer FID indicates lower risk-taking, while shorter FID identifies bolder individuals who tolerate greater risk. 2. Until now, no studies have tested the potential effect of the observer's sex on the escape behaviour of wild birds. Given observed differences in how laboratory animals may respond to the sex of humans interacting with them, the lack of reports in the field is surprising. 3. In five European countries, we tested whether urban birds perceived the risk posed by approaching female versus male observers differently, using FID as a response variable. First, we matched the female and male observers according to their height and clothing. Then, we fitted Bayesian regression models, controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of bird species, to test for the effect of human observer sex after controlling for a variety of other important factors known to explain variation in FID (starting distance, flock size, sex of the target bird, land use characteristics and vegetation cover). 4. We found that male birds were more risk-tolerant than females and – unexpectedly—birds in general escaped sooner when approached by women than by men. The escape difference associated with the observer's sex (~1 m longer when approached by women than by men) was consistent in populations across all five examined European countries. We discussed various hypotheses to explain birds' escape responses related to the observer's sex; however, further research is necessary to fully understand this phenomenon.
dc.affiliationWydział Medycyny Weterynaryjnej i Nauk o Zwierzętach
dc.affiliation.instituteKatedra Zoologii
dc.contributor.authorMorelli, Federico
dc.contributor.authorBenedetti, Yanina
dc.contributor.authorMikula, Peter
dc.contributor.authorBlumstein, Daniel T.
dc.contributor.authorDíaz, Mario
dc.contributor.authorPage, Alicia
dc.contributor.authorTryjanowski, Piotr
dc.contributor.authorNowak, Marta K.
dc.contributor.authorVincze, Eva
dc.contributor.authorLövei, Gábor L.
dc.date.access2025-12-31
dc.date.accessioned2025-12-31T10:55:47Z
dc.date.available2025-12-31T10:55:47Z
dc.date.copyright2025-12-12
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstract<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> <jats:list> <jats:list-item> <jats:p>Flight initiation distance (FID) is a metric often used to study an individual's perceptions of risk when facing a predatory threat. Longer FID indicates lower risk‐taking, while shorter FID identifies bolder individuals who tolerate greater risk.</jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p>Until now, no studies have tested the potential effect of the observer's sex on the escape behaviour of wild birds. Given observed differences in how laboratory animals may respond to the sex of humans interacting with them, the lack of reports in the field is surprising.</jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p>In five European countries, we tested whether urban birds perceived the risk posed by approaching female versus male observers differently, using FID as a response variable. First, we matched the female and male observers according to their height and clothing. Then, we fitted Bayesian regression models, controlling for the phylogenetic relatedness of bird species, to test for the effect of human observer sex after controlling for a variety of other important factors known to explain variation in FID (starting distance, flock size, sex of the target bird, land use characteristics and vegetation cover).</jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p>We found that male birds were more risk‐tolerant than females and – unexpectedly—birds in general escaped sooner when approached by women than by men. The escape difference associated with the observer's sex (~1 m longer when approached by women than by men) was consistent in populations across all five examined European countries. We discussed various hypotheses to explain birds' escape responses related to the observer's sex; however, further research is necessary to fully understand this phenomenon.</jats:p> </jats:list-item> </jats:list> </jats:p> <jats:p> Read the free <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://relationalthinkingblog.com/?p=11988">Plain Language Summary</jats:ext-link> for this article on the Journal blog. </jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.bibliographyil., bibliogr.
dc.description.financepublication_nocost
dc.description.financecost0,00
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.identifier.doi10.1002/pan3.70226
dc.identifier.issn2575-8314
dc.identifier.urihttps://sciencerep.up.poznan.pl/handle/item/6594
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.70226
dc.languageen
dc.relation.ispartofPeople and Nature
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.sciencecloudnosend
dc.share.typeOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.enbirds
dc.subject.enescape behaviour
dc.subject.enhuman disturbance
dc.subject.enobserver sex
dc.subtypeArticleEarlyAccess
dc.titleSex matters: European urban birds flee approaching women sooner than approaching men
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication