Coevolution of humans and birds in urbanizing landscapes:
The documentation and investigation of connections between human and bird behavior in Berlin and Seattle.
This project is a collaboration between Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany) and University of Washington (Seattle, WA, USA). We are interested in understanding how the interactions of humans and birds in urbanized environments (high densities of humans and man-made structures) have shaped bird behavior. To study this connection, we are first conducting human surveys on human attitudes and actions towards wildlife that might influence birds. These surveys are being done during September to December 2008 in Berlin across five urban site types: 1) City centers, 2) High-rise apartments, 3) Detached family housing, 4) Villas, and 5) surrounding Villages. Flyers are posted in sites prior to the survey and our researchers then go and deliver the survey to people at the sites. During the spring and summer of 2009, behavioral studies of birds will be conducted at the sites based on the results of the human surveys. These studies will help us understand if human behavior has an effect of bird behavior and if birds differ across the different sites. The two phases of the study will then be replicated in Seattle in 2009-2010 so that we can compare an American city with a European city. American cities are much younger than European cities and we might see differences due to shorter evolutionary time frames. The general hypothesis is that humans and animals coevolve in urbanized areas because human attitudes select for certain behavior in animals, and in turn, humans might change their behavior (attitudes). For example, birds adapting to city life might select for social learning and this might put the bird species in closer contact with humans in either negative or positive ways. The results of the studies will be posted here in the future. If you have any questions, feel free to email Sonja Kübler (sonja.kuebler@geo.hu-berlin.de) or Barbara Clucas (barbara.clucas@geo.hu-berlin.de).