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‘Ripple effects’ of urban environmental characteristics on cognitive performance in Eurasian red squirrels

Chow, Pizza
; 
Uchida, Kenta
; 
Koizumi, Itsuro
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Affiliation
University of Chester; Hokkaido University
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-06-23
Submitted Date
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Psychology
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Abstract
Urban areas are expanding exponentially, leading more species of wildlife living in urban environments. Urban environmental characteristics, such as human disturbance, induce stress for many wildlife and have been shown to affect some cognitive traits, such as innovative problem-solving performance. However, because different cognitive traits have common cognitive processes, it is possible that urban environmental characteristics may directly and indirectly affect related cognitive traits (the ripple effect hypothesis). We tested the ripple effect hypothesis in urban Eurasian red squirrels residing in 11 urban areas that had different urban environmental characteristics (direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance, areas of green coverage, and squirrel population size). These squirrels were innovators who had previously repeatedly solved a food-extraction task (the original task). Here, we examined whether and how urban environmental characteristics would directly and indirectly influence performance in two related cognitive traits, generalisation and (long-term) memory. The generalisation task required the innovators to apply the learned successful solutions when solving a similar but novel problem. The memory task required them to recall the learned solution of the original task after an extended period of time. Some of the selected urban environmental characteristics directly influenced the task performance, both at the population level (site) and at individual levels. Urban environmental characteristics, such as increased direct and indirect human disturbance, decreased the proportion of success in solving the generalisation task or the memory task at the population (site) level. Increased direct human disturbance and less green coverage increased the solving efficiency at individual levels. We also found an indirect effect in one of the urban environmental characteristics, indirect human disturbance, in the generalisation task, but not the memory task. Such an effect was only seen at the individual level but not at the population level; indirect human disturbance decreased the first original latency, which then decreased the generalisation latency across successes. Our results partially support the ripple effect hypothesis, suggesting that urban environmental characteristics are stressors for squirrels and have a greater impact on shaping cognitive performance than previously shown. Together, these results provide a better understanding of cognitive traits that support wildlife in adapting to urban environments.
Citation
Chow, P., Uchida, K., & Koizumi, I. (2024). ‘Ripple effects’ of urban environmental characteristics on cognitive performance in Eurasian red squirrels. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93(8), 1078-1096. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14126
Publisher
Wiley
Journal
Journal of Animal Ecology
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/628696
DOI
10.1111/1365-2656.14126
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
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Description
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0021-8790
EISSN
1365-2656
ISBN
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Sponsors
JSPS and The Academy of Finland Profi Biodiverse Anthropocenes
Additional Links
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.14126