Breeding in the pandemic: short-term lockdown restrictions in a European capital city did not alter the life-history traits of two urban adapters.

ABSTRACT: Humans are transforming natural habitats into managed urban green areas and impervious surfaces at an unprecedented pace. Yet the effects of human presence per se on animal life-history traits are rarely tested. This is particularly true in cities, where human presence is often indissociable from urbanisation itself. The onset of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, along with the resulting lockdown restrictions, offered a unique, "natural experiment" to investigate wildlife responses to a sudden reduction in human activity. We analysed four years of avian breeding data collected in a European capital city to test whether lockdown measures altered nestbox occupancy and life-history traits in terms of egg laying date, incubation duration and clutch size in two urban adapters: great tits (Paru

SUBMITTER: Corsini M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9748896 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature