Animal Behaviour
Volume 85, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 1113–1126
Including Special Section: Behavioural Plasticity and Evolution
Special Issue
Georgia Masona, , ,
Charlotte C. Burnb,
Jamie Ahloy Dallairea,
Jeanette Kroshkoa,
Heather McDonald Kinkaida,
Jonathan M. Jeschkec
Highlights
► Billions of animals live in captive conditions very different from their ancestral environments. ► Some challenges resemble those for translocation and other forms of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). ► Parallels between HIREC and captivity suggest that some species may struggle in both wild and captive environments. ► Common presence in captivity predicted chance of establishment in natural habitats for 99 vertebrate species examined. ► Populations adjusting to captivity show rapid developmental effects, often modelling effects during HIREC.
Billions of wild and semiwild animals live in captive conditions very different from their ancestral environments. Some of the potential challenges they face here, such as greater human proximity, constrained natural behaviours and altered climates, resemble those occurring during urbanization, translocation and other forms of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) in the wild. These parallels between HIREC and captivity suggest that certain species could be in double jeopardy: struggling in both wild and captive environments. This raises new hypotheses for future research, including one tested in this paper: that a species' presence in captivity predicts its chances of establishment when translocated to novel natural habitats. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms that predispose captive populations to thrive or fail can yield new insights into how animals respond to HIREC. For example, populations adjusting to captivity demonstrate rapid developmental effects. Within one generation, captive-reared animals may show beneficial phenotypic changes (e.g. smaller stress responses than F0s wild caught as adults), illustrating how adaptive developmental plasticity can help populations succeed. However, captive-reared animals also illustrate the risks of developing in evolutionarily new environments (being prone to reduced behavioural flexibility, and sometimes impaired reproduction), suggesting that disrupted ontogeny is one reason why HIREC can be harmful. Overall, analogies between captivity and HIREC are thus interesting and useful. However, captivity and HIREC do differ in some regards, captivity tending to be safer yet more monotonous; we therefore end by discussing how species-typical risk/protective factors, and the phenotypic changes induced in affected animals, may vary between the two.
Correspondence: G. Mason, Animal Sciences Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
Volume 85, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 1113–1126
Including Special Section: Behavioural Plasticity and Evolution
Special Issue
Georgia Masona, , ,
Charlotte C. Burnb,
Jamie Ahloy Dallairea,
Jeanette Kroshkoa,
Heather McDonald Kinkaida,
Jonathan M. Jeschkec
Highlights
► Billions of animals live in captive conditions very different from their ancestral environments. ► Some challenges resemble those for translocation and other forms of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). ► Parallels between HIREC and captivity suggest that some species may struggle in both wild and captive environments. ► Common presence in captivity predicted chance of establishment in natural habitats for 99 vertebrate species examined. ► Populations adjusting to captivity show rapid developmental effects, often modelling effects during HIREC.
Billions of wild and semiwild animals live in captive conditions very different from their ancestral environments. Some of the potential challenges they face here, such as greater human proximity, constrained natural behaviours and altered climates, resemble those occurring during urbanization, translocation and other forms of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) in the wild. These parallels between HIREC and captivity suggest that certain species could be in double jeopardy: struggling in both wild and captive environments. This raises new hypotheses for future research, including one tested in this paper: that a species' presence in captivity predicts its chances of establishment when translocated to novel natural habitats. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms that predispose captive populations to thrive or fail can yield new insights into how animals respond to HIREC. For example, populations adjusting to captivity demonstrate rapid developmental effects. Within one generation, captive-reared animals may show beneficial phenotypic changes (e.g. smaller stress responses than F0s wild caught as adults), illustrating how adaptive developmental plasticity can help populations succeed. However, captive-reared animals also illustrate the risks of developing in evolutionarily new environments (being prone to reduced behavioural flexibility, and sometimes impaired reproduction), suggesting that disrupted ontogeny is one reason why HIREC can be harmful. Overall, analogies between captivity and HIREC are thus interesting and useful. However, captivity and HIREC do differ in some regards, captivity tending to be safer yet more monotonous; we therefore end by discussing how species-typical risk/protective factors, and the phenotypic changes induced in affected animals, may vary between the two.
Correspondence: G. Mason, Animal Sciences Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
