Compensatory Responses to Wildlife Control

doi:10.1017/9781108768450.011

8 - Compensatory Responses to Wildlife Control

Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Findings from the Invasive Common Myna

from Part I - Evolution of Learning Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022

Andrea S. Griffin and

Edited by

Karen L. Hollis and

Mark A. Krause: Affiliation:
Southern Oregon University
Karen L. Hollis: Affiliation:
Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts
Mauricio R. Papini: Affiliation:
Texas Christian University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Human predation not only reduces prey densities, but also induces profound phenotypical changes in prey. Changes are increasingly well documented in the context of wildlife exploitation and range from morphological and life history modifications to physiological and behavioral effects. We focus on a form of human predation that has received almost no attention until now: Predation inflicted by lethal control of nuisance, pest, and alien species. We highlight the potential consequences of phenotypical changes in target species and explain the mechanisms by which phenotypical changes can arise, with emphasis on the role of associative learning and generalization. We then present an overview of a research program examining the ways in which the invasive common myna (Acridotheres tristis), one of the most broadly distributed invasive birds globally, is changing its behavior in response to heavy trapping pressure in some areas of Australia. A series of studies demonstrate how mynas learn about novel threats. Free-ranging mynas display compensatory responses to the threats of trapping and the mechanism of change is likely to involve cognition. This work has expanded our understanding of the adaptive significance of learning and memory mechanisms in nonhumans and has informed trapping practices for pest birds in Australia. We hope the chapter will help stimulate more research into the phenotypical changes associated with lethal control for which our work can serve as a model.

Keywords

species management learning cognition invasive species alien species nuisance species wildlife harvesting

Type: Chapter
Information: Evolution of Learning and Memory Mechanisms , pp. 143 - 158

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108768450.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allendorf, F. W., & Hard, J. J. (2009). Human-induced evolution caused by unnatural selection through harvest of wild animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(Suppl.), 9987–9994. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901069106 Google Scholar

Andersen, K. H., Marty, L., & Arlinghaus, R. (2018). Evolution of boldness and life history in response to selective harvesting. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 75, 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0350 Google Scholar

Badyaev, A. V. (2005). Stress-induced variation in evolution: From behavioural plasticity to genetic assimilation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 272(1566), 877–886. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.3045 Google Scholar

Barrett, L. P., Stanton, L. A., & Benson-Amram, S. (2019). The cognition of “nuisance” species. Animal Behaviour, 147, 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.05.005 Google Scholar

Bell, A. M., McGhee, K. E., & Stein, L. R. (2016). Effects of mothers’ and fathers’ experience with predation risk on the behavioral development of their offspring in threespined sticklebacks. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 7, 28–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.10.011 Google Scholar

Berger, J., Swenson, J. E., & Persson, I.-L. (2001). Recolonizing carnivores and naïve prey: Conservation lessons from pleistocene extinctions. Science, 291, 1036–1039. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1056466 Google Scholar

Blackburn, T. M., Pyšek, P., Bacher, S., Carlton, J. T., Duncan, R. P., Jarošík, V., Wilson, J. R. U., & Richardson, D. M. (2011). A proposed unified framework for biological invasions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 26, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.023 Google Scholar

Bouton, M. E., & Bolles, R. C. (1979). Contextual control of the extinction of conditioned fear. Learning and Motivation, 10(4), 445–466. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0023-9690(79)90057-2 Google Scholar

Brooks, R., & Endler, J. A. (2001). Direct and indirect sexual selection and quantitative genetics of male traits in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Evolution, 55, 1002–1015. https://doi.org/10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[1002:daissa]2.0.co;2 Google Scholar

Brown, C. (2012). Experience and learning in changing environments. In Candolin, U. & Wong, B. B. M. (Eds.), Behavioural responses to a changing world: Mechanisms and consequences. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Burney, D. A., & Flannery, T. F. (2005). Fifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 20, 395–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.022 Google Scholar

Cain, S. W., McDonald, R. J., & Ralph, M. R. (2008). Time stamp in conditioned place avoidance can be set to different circadian phases. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 89, 591–594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2007.07.011 Google Scholar

CIMAG (2013). The Canberra Indian Myna Action Group Inc. www.indianmynaaction.org.au (accessed August 30, 2021)Google Scholar

Coss, R. G. (1978). Perceptual determinants of gaze aversion by the Lesser Mouse Lemur (Microcebus murinus), the role of two facing eyes. Behaviour, 64(3), 248–270. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853978X00053 Google Scholar

Coss, R. G. (1979). Delayed plasticity of an instinct: Recognition and avoidance of 2 facing eyes by the jewel fish. Developmental Psychobiology, 12(4), 335–345. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.420120408 Google Scholar

Coss, R. G. (1999). Effects of relaxed selection on the evolution of behavior. In Forster, S. A. & Endler, J. A. (Eds.), Geographic variation of behavior: An evolutionary perspective (pp. 180–208). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Côté, I. M., Darling, E. S., Malpica-Cruz, L., Smith, N. S., Green, S. J., Curtis-Quick, J., & Layman, C. (2014). What doesn’t kill you makes you wary? Effect of repeated culling on the behaviour of an invasive predator. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e94248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094248 Google Scholar

Darimont, C. T., Carlson, S. M., Kinnison, M. T., Paquet, P. C., Reimchen, T. E., & Wilmers, C. C. (2009). Human predators outpace other agents of trait change in the wild. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 952–954. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0809235106 Google Scholar

Díaz Pauli, B., Wiech, M., Heino, M., & Utne-Palm, A. (2015). Opposite selection on behavioural types by active and passive fishing gears in a simulated guppy fishery. Journal of Fish Biology, 86, 1030–1045. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12620 Google Scholar

Diquelou, M. C. (2017). Responses of invasive birds to control: The case of common mynas in Australia. University of Newcastle.Google Scholar

Diquelou, M. C., & Griffin, A. S. (2019). It’s a trap! Invasive common mynas learn socially about control-related cues. Behavioral Ecology, 30, 1314–1323. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz079 Google Scholar

Diquelou, M. C., & Griffin, A. S. (2020). Behavioral responses of invasive and nuisance vertebrates to harvesting: A mechanistic framework. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 1–8. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00177 Google Scholar

Diquelou, M. C., MacFarlane, G. R., & Griffin, A. S. (2018). Investigating responses to control: A comparison of common myna behaviour across areas of high and low trapping pressure. Biological Invasions, 20(12), 3591–3604. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1798-9 Google Scholar

Dufty, A. M., Clobert, J., & Møller, A. P. (2002). Hormones, developmental plasticity and adaptation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 17, 190–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)02498-9 Google Scholar

Endler, J. A. (1982). The impact of predation on life history evolution in trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Evolution, 36, 160–177. https://doi.org/10.2307/2407978 Google Scholar

Ewart, K., Griffin, A. S., Johnson, R., Kark, S., Magory Cohen, T., Lo, N., & Major, R. (2018). Two speed invasion: Assisted and intrinsic dispersal of common mynas over 150-years of colonization. Journal of Biogeography, 46, 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13473 Google Scholar

Fanselow, M. S., & Sterlace, S. R. (2014). Pavlovian fear conditioning: Function, cause, and treatment. In McSweeney, F. K. & Murphy, E. S. (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell handbook of operant and classical conditioning (pp. 117–143). Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118468135.ch6 Google Scholar

Farr, J. (1977). Male rarity or novelty, female choice behavior, and sexual selection in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata Peters (Pisces: Poeciliidae). Evolution, 31(1), 162–168. https://doi.org/10.2307/2407554 Google Scholar

Ferrari, M. C. O., Crane, A. L., & Chivers, D. P. (2016). Certainty and the cognitive ecology of generalization of predator recognition. Animal Behaviour, 111, 207–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.10.026 Google Scholar

Ferrari, M. C. O., Messier, F., & Chivers, D. P. (2008). Can prey exhibit threat-sensitive generalization of predator recognition? Extending the predator recognition continuum hypothesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275, 1811–1816. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0305 Google Scholar

Ferrari, M. C. O., Trowell, J. J., Brown, G. E., & Chivers, D. P. (2005). The role of learning in the development of threat-sensitive predator avoidance by fathead minnows. Animal Behaviour, 70, 777–784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.01.009 Google Scholar

Ferrari, M. C. O., Wisenden, B. D., & Chivers, D. P. (2010). Chemical ecology of predator–prey interactions in aquatic ecosystems: A review and prospectus. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 88, 698–724. https://doi.org/10.1139/Z10-029 Google Scholar

Grarock, K., Tidemann, C. R., Wood, J., & Lindenmayer, D. B. (2012). Is it benign or is it a pariah? Empirical evidence for the impact of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis) on Australian birds. PLoS ONE, 7(7), e40622. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040622 Google Scholar

Grarock, K., Tidemann, C. R., Wood, J. T., & Lindenmayer, D. B. (2014a). Understanding basic species population dynamics for effective control: A case study on community-led culling of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis). Biological Invasions, 16, 1427–1440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0580-2 Google Scholar

Grarock, K., Tidemann, C. R., Wood, J. T., & Lindenmayer, D. B. (2014b). Are invasive species drivers of native species decline or passengers of habitat modification? A case study of the impact of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis) on Australian bird species. Austral Ecology, 39(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12049 Google Scholar

Grether, G. F., Hudon, J., & Millie, D. F. (1999). Carotenoid limitation of sexual coloration along an environmental gradient in guppies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 266(1426), 1317–1322. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1999.0781 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S. (2003). Training tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) to respond to predators: A review linking experimental psychology to conservation. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 16, 111–129. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/706146b6 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S. (2004). Social learning about predators: A review and prospectus. Learning & Behavior, 32, 131–140. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196014 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S. (2008). Social learning in Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis: The role of distress calls. Animal Behaviour, 75(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.04.008 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S. (2009). Temporal limitations on social learning of novel predators by Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis. Ethology, 115(3), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01594.x Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., Blumstein, D. T., & Evans, C. S. (2000). Training captive-bred or translocated animals to avoid predators. Conservation Biology, 14, 1317–1326. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2000.99326.x Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., & Boyce, H. M. (2009). Indian mynahs, Acridotheres tristis, learn about dangerous places by observing the fate of others. Animal Behaviour, 78, 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.03.012 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., Boyce, H. M., & MacFarlane, G. R. (2010). Social learning about places: Observers may need to detect both social alarm and its cause in order to learn. Animal Behaviour, 79, 459–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.11.029 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., & Evans, C. S. (2003). Social learning of antipredator behaviour in a marsupial. Animal Behaviour, 66, 485–492. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2207 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., Evans, C. S., & Blumstein, D. T. (2001). Learning specificity in acquired predator recognition. Animal Behaviour, 62, 577–589. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2001.1781 Google Scholar

Griffin, A. S., & Haythorpe, K. (2011). Learning from watching alarmed demonstrators: Does the cause of alarm matter? Animal Behaviour, 81, 1163–1169. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347211000753 Google Scholar

Healy, S. D., & Jones, C. M. (2002). Animal learning and memory: An integration of cognition and ecology. Zoology (Jena, Germany), 105, 321–327. https://doi.org/10.1078/0944-2006-00071 Google Scholar

Hendry, A. P., Farrugia, T. J., & Kinnison, M. T. (2008). Human influences on rates of phenotypic change in wild animal populations. Molecular Ecology, 17, 20–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03428.x Google Scholar

Hilborn, R., Amoroso, R. O., Anderson, C. M., Baum, J. K., Branch, T. A., Costello, C., De Moor, C. L., Faraj, A., Hively, D., Jensen, O. P., Kurota, H., Little, L. R., Mace, P., McClanahan, T., Melnychuk, M. C., Minto, C., Osio, G. C., Parma, A. M., Pons, M., … Ye, Y. (2020). Effective fisheries management instrumental in improving fish stock status. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117, 2218–2224. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909726116 Google Scholar

Hollis, K. L. (1982). Pavlovian conditioning of signal-centered action patterns and autonomic behavior: A biological analysis of function. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 12, 1–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-3454(08)60045-5 Google Scholar

Houde, A. E. (1997). Evolutionary mismatch of mating preferences and male colour patterns in guppies. Animal Behaviour, 53, 343–351. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1996.0399 Google Scholar

Hughes, K. A., Rodd, F. H., & Reznick, D. N. (2005). Genetic and environmental effects on secondary sex traits in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 18, 35–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00806.x Google Scholar

King, D. H. (2010). The effect of trapping pressure on trap avoidance and the role of foraging strategies in anti-predator beahviour of common mynahs (Sturnus tristis). Canberra Notes, 35, 85–108.Google Scholar

Laland, K. N., Toyokawa, W., & Oudman, T. (2020). Animal learning as a source of developmental bias. Evolution and Development, 22, 126–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/ede.12311 Google Scholar

LeDoux, J. E. (2014). Coming to terms with fear. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(8), 2871–2878. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400335111 Google Scholar

Lönnstedt, O. M., McCormick, M. I., Meekan, M. G., Ferrari, M. C. O., & Chivers, D. P. (2012). Learn and live: Predator experience and feeding history determines prey behaviour and survival. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279, 2091–2098. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.2516 Google Scholar

Lowe, S., Browne, M., Boudjelas, S., De Poorter, M., & World Conservation Union (IUCN). (2000). 100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species: A selection from the Global Invasive Species Database. Invasive Species Specialist Group.Google Scholar

Mack, R. N., Simberloff, D., Lonsdale, W. M., Evans, H., Clout, M., & Bazzaz, F. A. (2000). Causes, epidemiology, global consequences, and control. Ecological Applications, 10(3), 689–710. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9623(2005)86[249b:IIE]2.0.CO;2 Google Scholar

Magrath, R. D., Haff, T. M., Mclachlan, J. R., Igic, B., Magrath, R. D., Haff, T. M., Mclachlan, J. R., & Igic, B. (2015). Wild birds learn to eavesdrop on heterospecific alarm calls. Current Biology, 25(15), 2047–2050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.028 Google Scholar

McGhee, K. E., & Bell, A. M. (2014). Paternal care in a fish: Epigenetics and fitness enhancing effects on offspring anxiety. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 281, 2–7. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1146 Google Scholar

Mineka, S., & Cook, M. (1988). Social learning and the acquisition of snake fear in monkeys. In Zentall, T. R. & Galef, B. G. J. (Eds.), Psychological and biological perspectives (pp. 51–73). Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar

Miner, B. G., Sultan, S. E., Morgan, S. G., Padilla, D. K., & Relyea, R. a. (2005). Ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 20, 685–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2005.08.002 Google Scholar

Mommer, B. C., & Bell, A. M. (2014). Maternal experience with predation risk influences genome-wide embryonic gene expression in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). PloS One, 9(6), e98564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098564 Google Scholar

Muñoz, A.-R., & Real, R. (2006). Assessing the potential range expansion of the exotic monk parakeet in Spain. Diversity and Distributions, 12, 656–665. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2006.00272.x Google Scholar

National Pest Control Agencies. (2015). Possum population monitoring using the trap-catch, waxtag and chewcard methods. In National Pest Control Agencies. www.npca.org.nz Google Scholar

Palkovacs, E. P., Moritsch, M. M., Contolini, G. M., & Pelletier, F. (2018). Ecology of harvest-driven trait changes and implications for ecosystem management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1743 Google Scholar

Palumbi, S. R. (2001). Humans as the world’s greatest evolutionary force. Science, 293(5536), 1786–1790. http://references.260mb.com/Evolucion/Palumbi2001.pdf Google Scholar

Parsons, H., Major, R. E., & French, K. (2006). Species interactions and habitat associations of birds inhabiting urban areas of Sydney, Australia. Austral Ecology, 31(2), 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2006.01584.x Google Scholar

Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Peacock, D. S., Rensburg, B. J. Van, & Robertson, M. P. (2007). The distribution and spread of the invasive alien common myna, Acridotheres tristis L. (Aves: Sturnidae), in southern Africa. South African Journal of Science, 103, 465–473. www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532007000600008&lng=en&nrm=iso Google Scholar

Peacock, T. (2007). Community on-ground cane toad control in the Kimberley. In A Review conducted for the Hon. David Templeman MP, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Peel. www.feral.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Peacock_Community-toad-control-report_lr.pdf Google Scholar

Pell, A. S., & Tidemann, C. R. (1997). The impact of two exotic hollow-nesting birds on two native parrots in savannah and woodland in the Eastern Australia. Biological Conservation, 79(96), 145–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(96)00112-7 Google Scholar

Pimental, D., Lach, L., Zuniga, R., & Morrison, D. (2000). Environmental and economic costs associated with non-indigenous species in the United States. BioScience, 50, 53–65. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050 Google Scholar

Pimentel, D., Zuniga, R., & Morrison, D. (2005). Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecological Economics, 52(3 Spec. Iss.), 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.10.002 Google Scholar

Reeder, D. M., & Kramer, K. M. (2005). Stress in free-ranging mammals: Integrating physiology, ecology, and natural history. Journal of Mammalogy, 86(2), 225–235. https://doi.org/10.1644/BHE-003.1 Google Scholar

Reznick, D. (1982). The impact of predation on life history evolution in trinidadian guppies: Genetic basis of observed life history patterns. Evolution, 36, 1236–1250. https://doi.org/10.2307/2408156 Google Scholar

Roche, D. P., McGhee, K. E., & Bell, A. M. (2012). Maternal predatorexposure has lifelong consequences for offspring learning in threespined sticklebacks. Biology Letters, 8(6), 932–935. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0685 Google Scholar

Shettleworth, S. J. (2010). Cognition, evolution, and behavior (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Sol, D., Bartomeus, I., & Griffin, A.S. (2012). The paradox of invasion in birds: Competitive superiority or ecological opportunism? Oecologia, 169, 553–564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2203-x Google Scholar

Stamps, J. A. (2015). Individual differences in behavioural plasticities. Biological Reviews, 7, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12186 Google Scholar

Sullivan, A. P., Bird, D. W., & Perry, G. H. (2017). Human behaviour as a long-term ecological driver of non-human evolution. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1, 0065. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0065 Google Scholar

Sultan, S. E., & Stearns, S. C. (2005). Environmentally contingent variation: Phenotypic plasticity and norms of reaction. In Hall, B. & Hallgrimsson, B. (Eds.), Variation: A central concept in biology (pp. 303–332). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012088777-4/50016-8 Google Scholar

Tidemann, C. (2005). Indian Mynas – Can the problems be controlled? Urban Animal Management Conference Proceedings 2005.Google Scholar

Wong, B. B. M., & Candolin, U. (2015). Lessons for a changing world: A response to comments on Wong and Candolin. Behavioral Ecology, 26(3), 679–680. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv040 Google Scholar

Book contents

8 - Compensatory Responses to Wildlife Control

Summary

Keywords

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive