Landfill foraging in migratory birds: Gain or pain?

• Applicant: Dr. Andrea Flack
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525139059

Human pressure is threatening many animal species to the edge of extinction. However, living close to humans might also come with advantages. The unstoppable growing increase in food waste and its deposition on open garbage dumps results in many birds and mammals using these landfills as foraging grounds. While research so far reported potential benefits associated with foraging on landfills such as improved reproductive performance and nutritional status, we hypothesise that this phenomenon could carry costs over longer terms, including increased risk of infections and physiological damage, as well as altered immunological responses. These responses could ultimately influence subsequent life history cycles like seasonal migration. To date, however, this remains largely untested. In addition, the organismal effects of foraging on human waste might be particularly pervasive when experienced during early postnatal development, as the environment in which organisms grow is known to have profound effects on subsequent life history strategies such as survival. We will use a migratory bird, the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) as our study system. This iconic species is well-suited for this project because its behaviour and ecology have been strongly impacted by anthropogenic food waste. The study will be carried out in a well-monitored population of white storks in Poland. By tracking individuals since their early post-natal growth (nestling stage), we aim to determine the extent to which parental foraging strategies (landfills vs. non-landfill) influence subsequent migration behavior and survival, and to which extent these correlate with changes in biomarkers of nutritional and health statuses at the individual level. In addition, we will use highly innovative animal tracking technology to test whether landfill foraging behaviour is transferred from parents to offspring (or unrelated neighboring individuals) and maintained throughout later stages of life. The project is original and highly innovative as it integrates multiple techniques in ecology, animal behaviour, physiology, immunology, and molecular biology. The research will be performed by three international teams led by: (1) PI Dr Marcin Tobolka (lead PI, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland), PI Dr Andrea Flack (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany), and PI Dr Valeria Marasco (Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Vetmeduni Vienna, Austria).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Poland
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Valeria Marasco; Marcin Tobolka, Ph.D.