The Relationship Between Relative Brain Size and Avoidance of Vehicular Collisions in Birds is Subtle.

ABSTRACT: Møller and Erritzøe (2017) reported that birds killed by collisions with vehicles had on average relatively smaller brains than birds killed by other causes, which were not identified. Despite concerns about the method used to assess brain mass, we reanalyzed the published data of Møller and Erritzøe (2017) after excluding extraneous species and confirmed a subtle tendency for birds killed by vehicular collision to have somewhat small brains. Some groups of birds (owls, hawks, garden birds and migratory species) did not reflect the overall result. Surprisingly there was no effect of age or sex, whereas one would expect inexperienced immature birds and females in breeding condition to be vulnerable. Overall, plots of brain mass in birds killed by vehicular collisions and other causes greatl

SUBMITTER: Zink RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12484027 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature