Coping with continuous human disturbance in the wild: insights from penguin heart rate response to various stressors.

Details

Ressource 1Download: BIB_D0CFF1F4E98B.P001.pdf (1583.16 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: author
Serval ID
serval:BIB_D0CFF1F4E98B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Coping with continuous human disturbance in the wild: insights from penguin heart rate response to various stressors.
Journal
BMC Ecology
Author(s)
Viblanc V.A., Smith A.D., Gineste B., Groscolas R.
ISSN
1472-6785 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1472-6785
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2012
Volume
12
Pages
10
Language
english
Abstract
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND: A central question for ecologists is the extent to which anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. tourism) might impact wildlife and affect the systems under study. From a research perspective, identifying the effects of human disturbance caused by research-related activities is crucial in order to understand and account for potential biases and derive appropriate conclusions from the data.
RESULTS: Here, we document a case of biological adjustment to chronic human disturbance in a colonial seabird, the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), breeding on remote and protected islands of the Southern ocean. Using heart rate (HR) as a measure of the stress response, we show that, in a colony with areas exposed to the continuous presence of humans (including scientists) for over 50 years, penguins have adjusted to human disturbance and habituated to certain, but not all, types of stressors. When compared to birds breeding in relatively undisturbed areas, birds in areas of high chronic human disturbance were found to exhibit attenuated HR responses to acute anthropogenic stressors of low-intensity (i.e. sounds or human approaches) to which they had been subjected intensely over the years. However, such attenuation was not apparent for high-intensity stressors (i.e. captures for scientific research) which only a few individuals experience each year.
CONCLUSIONS: Habituation to anthropogenic sounds/approaches could be an adaptation to deal with chronic innocuous stressors, and beneficial from a research perspective. Alternately, whether penguins have actually habituated to anthropogenic disturbances over time or whether human presence has driven the directional selection of human-tolerant phenotypes, remains an open question with profound ecological and conservation implications, and emphasizes the need for more knowledge on the effects of human disturbance on long-term studied populations.
Keywords
Stress, Heart rate, Habituation, Selection, Seabird, Human disturbance, Long-term monitoring
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
07/02/2013 9:48
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:51
Usage data