Recovery through resistance? nesting urban female song sparrows (<i>Melospiza melodia</i>) have a lower glucocorticoid response to disturbance and return to parental care as quickly as rural females.

ABSTRACT: Urbanization represents a dramatic and relatively rapid change in the environment that has profound impacts on wild animals. Shifts in behavior and endocrine mechanisms of stress response could allow animals to successfully survive and reproduce in urban habitats. Numerous studies have examined the behavioral and physiological responses of territory-holding male songbirds to urbanization. However, breeding females likely experience anthropogenic noise, light at night, and human disturbance more frequently, and their behavioral coping responses to these disturbances are limited during incubation. Moreover, breeding females face higher energetic demands (allostatic load). Understanding how some species cope with novel urban habitats requires studying individuals facing the greatest challenge

SUBMITTER: Lane SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11999856 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature