Birds have a worse body condition in more urbanized areas
Birds have a worse body condition in more urbanized areas
Birds have a worse body condition in more urbanized areas
A team from the Biological Station of Doñana (EBD), center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Seville (Spain), has found in a study that birds have a worse body condition as the degree of urbanization increases. place where they live. The Ciber of Epidemiology and Public Health has also participated in the research and the results have been published in Science of the Total Environment.
For the study a total of 2043 common sparrows (Passer domesticus) were captured, mainly juveniles, born that same spring in 45 localities of the provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz. The catches were made in three types of different areas: urban areas with high density of people; rural areas with high density of species of livestock interest and natural areas with greater conservation. The wild birds were measured and weighed to estimate the body condition of the birds, a measure that corrects the weight of individuals according to their size. A small blood sample was also taken with which their status of infection by avian malaria blood parasites was identified using molecular methods.
Jéssica Jiménez Peñuela, a researcher at the EBD and lead author of the study, points out that "these parasites are similar to those that produce human malaria and are also transmitted by mosquitoes, but unlike these, they do not affect people but circulate exclusively between birds. " Another finding of the research was that birds from urban areas infected by blood parasites showed a greater body condition than those uninfected. This result could be explained by the previous selective disappearance of the infected specimens that had a lower body condition, that is, those birds from urban areas with a lower body condition were unable to cope with the adverse aspects induced by the infection and the urbanization of the medium.
Sparrow. (Photo: CSIC)
Jiménez Peñuela emphasizes that "the results obtained confirm the negative impact of the urbanization of the environment on the health status of the birds, with birds with a lower body condition found in areas with a higher rate of urbanization, which may be due to the effect adverse of contaminants or poor nutrition. In contrast, birds from rural areas, especially juveniles, had a higher body condition, which could be due to greater availability of higher quality food in these areas. In addition, the urban sparrow juveniles infected with avian malaria parasites had a higher body condition compared to the uninfected. These results could indicate a higher mortality of infected birds and lower body condition, due to their inability to cope with the joint costs of the infection and the urban environment. "
The study was partially funded by research funds of Projects of Excellence of the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Leonardo program of the BBVA Foundation and the Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundation. (Source: CSIC / DICYT)
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