The effect of human resource provisioning on animal social structure

• Applicant: Dr. Kristina Beck
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 515649177

Animal social structure, often conceptualized as a social network, fundamentally impacts key population processes ranging from reproduction to survival and the transmission of information. However, our understanding of the factors that shape the diversity in animal social structures is limited. Animal social structure is strongly influenced by the availability of food resources. By impacting animal movement decisions and thus the spatiotemporal distribution of individuals, resources shape opportunities for social associations and consequently social structure. Human activities, such as urbanization and recreation in natural habitats, increasingly modify the availability of food resources. Such anthropogenic resources can impact social associations because of two key reasons: they strongly impact the spatiotemporal availability of food, and they involve risks due to the proximity to humans. These features can impact different levels of animal societies ranging from dyadic association patterns (who associates with whom) to the social network structure, and subsequent population processes such as the transmission of information. Yet, despite the increasing human impacts on wildlife, the effects of human food provisioning on animal societies remain surprisingly unexplored. In the proposed project, I aim to fill this knowledge gap by studying alpine choughs (Pyrrhocorax graculus), a highly social corvid species which readily uses anthropogenic resources. In their natural habitat, alpine choughs increasingly overlap in space with humans and scrounge food from hikers. During winter, alpine choughs regularly search for food in villages and cities. Thus, alpine choughs inhabit two very extreme environments (alpine versus urban) differing in anthropogenic resource availability. When foraging from anthropogenic resources, individuals face a trade-off between resource consumption and human avoidance. Therefore, I will first characterize individual differences in anthropogenic resource use and whether such differences influence dyadic association patterns. Second, I will examine whether the spatiotemporal variation in anthropogenic resource availability impacts the birds’ social network structure. Anthropogenic resources in urban habitat are often highly abundant. In contrast, human food provisioning in alpine habitats can strongly vary depending on recreational activities. Such differences in resource availability can influence the spatiotemporal distribution of individuals and may thus impact the overall social network structure. Finally, if human resource provisioning influences social associations, it may also impact population processes. I will experimentally study this question by investigating information transmission under varying anthropogenic resource availabilities. My findings will provide important new insights into how animals respond to human-induced environmental changes and how anthropogenic resources impact animal societies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Matthias-Claudio Loretto; Professor Thomas Müller, Ph.D.