Climate change is making birds adopt extraordinary behaviours to survive, according to new research.
They include baiting fish with bread, attacking prey with the help of a train and using boats as hunting platforms. Others have been seen opening packets of sugar on cafe terraces and dropping mussels on to hard rocks to break the shell.
The innovative tactics seen by many British birds are being fuelled by loss of habitat through global warming and development, say scientists. And species that learn fresh tricks to cope with more challenging circumstances are less vulnerable to extinction.
Study author Dr Simon Ducatez, an evolutionary biologist at McGill University, Montreal, said: “We long suspected this relationship between innovation and survival must exist, but now we have been able to verify it quantitatively.
“We have also been able to verify the greater the number of innovations
described for a species, the greater the probability its populations are stable or increasing.”
His team analysed data on more than 8,600 bird species – including more than 3,800 novel feeding techniques.
They span almost six decades, thanks to the tireless observations of bird
watchers across the world.
Dr Ducatez said: “Some of these remarkable observations were made in the UK. For instance, great egrets have been seen using a piece of bread or insects as fishing bait.”
It is believed they got the idea by watching anglers do similar things by
throwing bread into the water, or using maggots or worms on their hooks to tempt fish.
Dr Ducatez said: “A peregrine falcon even used a train to attack birds as they were flushed by its passage through the forest. Another was observed using fishing vessels as a platform for hunting
petrels at sea, a food source otherwise unavailable.”
The peregrine falcon is the world’s fastest animal, capable of dive bombing at more than 200mph.
Dr Ducatez said: “Great cormorants have been watched timing their fishing strategy with the movement of commercial ferries at a wharf. They use the strong currents generated by the propellers to catch confused fish.”
All these examples were captured around Britain, but the phenomenon of
altered avian activity stretches to every country.
Dr Ducatez said: “Blue-faced honeyeaters have been observed opening sugar packets on cafe terraces in Australia to then opportunistically take advantage of this new food source.
“Bullfinches have been seen doing the same in Barbados. Opportunistic carrion crows have also been observed using cars as nut or seashell-crackers.
"Corvids, raptors and gulls are among the most innovative birds. A kelp gull has been seen dropping a mussel to break it on hard rocks in New
Zealand. Some birds exhibit problem-solving abilities that rival those of a primate."
The study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution is the first to show the ability to innovate reduces extinction risk on a global scale.
Using a computer model, it also found 'behavioural plasticity' was
specifically effective in combating habitat alteration. Those that more easily incorporate different foods into their diets or develop new foraging techniques better withstand environmental changes.
Researchers compared the number of observed innovations of each species with their risk of extinction, according to the Red List of the International
Union for Conservation of Nature.
Other instances were a great egret killing and eating a common sparrow in
Brazil, rather than fish, and a crow stealing scraps from starlings feeding in
a dump in Spain. A Himalayan griffon, usually a carrion-eater, was spotted feeding on pine needles in India.
Dr Ducatez said: "Others are complex. Gulls are particularly innovative, including the Pacific gull, that has been seen attempting to prey upon a greater crested tern in Kangaroo Island, South Australia an unusual behaviour for this species."
But the study found innovation did not protect birds against invasive species or over exploitation. This would explain why some of the most clever animals on the planet such as parrots, whales, and primates are at risk of being wiped out.
Co author Dr Daniel Sol, an ecologist at the Autonomous University ofBarcelona, said: "It must be taken into account the species with the greatest capacity for innovation have longer generation times, which makes them more vulnerable to hunting."
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