Date: January 23, 2019
Source: Morris Animal Foundation
Mockingbirds
exposed to sub-lethal levels of lead in urban areas display significantly
heightened aggression, said Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at
Tulane University. The team said their findings highlight the possibility that
sub-lethal lead exposure may be common among other wildlife living in urban
areas and more work is needed to better understand its full effects. Their
study was published in Science of the Total Environment.
"There's
considerable lead contamination in soils around the world and that means
literally billions of animals, both urban wildlife and pets, are likely exposed
at sub-lethal levels," said Dr. Jordan Karubian, Associate Professor at
Tulane University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "The
levels aren't killing them, but they may affect their behavior or physiology.
Heightened aggression among mockingbirds may just be the tip of the
iceberg."
For the
study, the team used simulated territorial intrusion on dozens of northern
mockingbirds in urban New Orleans neighborhoods with either low or high levels
of lead in the soil. Researchers placed a taxidermized mockingbird on a tripod,
25 feet away from nests that pairs of mockingbirds were constructing, a
situation in which the birds act most territorial. The researchers also played
recorded songs of singing males to alert the mockingbirds and make the
intrusions more realistic.
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