⚙
AI-generated deep summary
by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-03
· read from full text
ⓘ
The preprint investigated how long-term exposure to lead (Pb) contamination affects anti-predatory behaviors in free-living house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in Broken Hill, Australia, comparing birds from higher- vs lower-Pb contaminated urban areas. Using behavioral measures of vigilance (time spent scanning) and gaze aversion (reluctance to approach a feeder under experimentally introduced human gaze), the authors found that higher-Pb birds scanned more and were more reluctant to approach, while escape flight performance was slightly worse but not statistically different. The study notes a key caveat that increased fear may or may not be linked to Pb-compromised escape performance. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.
Abstract
To survive, prey animals must correctly assess and respond to predation, by vigilantly scanning their environment for threats, assessing predation risk through gaze aversion (responding fearfully to predator gaze), and escaping efficiently. As these anti-predatory behaviours are integrated through the nervous and motor systems, they could be disrupted by neurotoxic contaminants, such as lead (Pb), which is ubiquitous in the Anthropocene. Here, we examined the effects of Pb on anti-predatory behaviours of free-living house sparrows (Passer domesticus), in the mining city of Broken Hill, Australia, where birds have been exposed to elevated Pb levels for many generations. We found that sparrows in higher-Pb contaminated areas spent more time scanning their surroundings and were more reluctant to approach a feeder under direct, experimentally introduced human gaze, than sparrows in lower-Pb contaminated areas. Higher-Pb birds had slightly worse (though not statistically different) escape flight performance than their lower-Pb counterparts. Our results suggest that greater exposure to Pb is associated with increased fear, which may or may not be linked to Pb-compromised escape performance. We highlight the importance of considering multi-faceted, integrated effects of environmental pollution on the behaviours of urban wildlife.
Full text
2,195 characters
· extracted from
oa-doi-fallback
· click to expand
This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
You must log in to post a comment.
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.
This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
Add a Comment
You must log in to post a comment.
Comments
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.
To survive, prey animals must correctly assess and respond to predation, by vigilantly scanning their environment for threats, assessing predation risk through gaze aversion (responding fearfully to predator gaze), and escaping efficiently. As these anti-predatory behaviours are integrated through the nervous and motor systems, they could be disrupted by neurotoxic contaminants, such as lead (Pb), which is ubiquitous in the Anthropocene. Here, we examined the effects of Pb on anti-predatory behaviours of free-living house sparrows (Passer domesticus), in the mining city of Broken Hill, Australia, where birds have been exposed to elevated Pb levels for many generations. We found that sparrows in higher-Pb contaminated areas spent more time scanning their surroundings and were more reluctant to approach a feeder under direct, experimentally introduced human gaze, than sparrows in lower-Pb contaminated areas. Higher-Pb birds had slightly worse (though not statistically different) escape flight performance than their lower-Pb counterparts. Our results suggest that greater exposure to Pb is associated with increased fear, which may or may not be linked to Pb-compromised escape performance. We highlight the importance of considering multi-faceted, integrated effects of environmental pollution on the behaviours of urban wildlife.
https://doi.org/10.32942/X20612
Animal Sciences
animal behaviour, avian flight, gaze aversion, lead pollution, urban ecology, Vigilance
Published: 2024-07-11 13:28
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
The data files and R script used to produce the results in this study will become publicly available upon publication of the manuscript.
Language:
English
Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below.
Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure
cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can
have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy
(via DOI)
is the canonical version.