Human-provided food increases aggregation but does not change activity budgets in an urban wading bird

Abstract

Abstract In urban areas, animals often aggregate at higher densities, move less, and alter their diets to consume anthropogenic food, all of which can affect wildlife health and the transmission of infectious diseases. However, it is unknown whether short-term changes in behavior associated with urban resources scale up to more pervasive long-term behavioral changes across landscape types. In this study, we used observational field data to explore how food provisioning affects behaviors relevant to parasite transmission in American white ibis (Eudocimus albus), a waterbird that has recently habituated to urban habitats and anthropogenic food. We found that ibis flock densities more than doubled during short intervals when birds were actively provisioned with food. We then explored activity budgets among urban sites with different levels of provisioning, and found that foraging time decreased with flock size and provisioning levels. Lastly, we compared ibis behavior in more natural wetland sites against urban sites, and found minimal to no differences in behaviors measured here. These results suggest that urbanization and provisioning alter ibis behaviors in ways that could influence, e.g. exposure to parasites in the short-term, but this has not yet resulted in significant long-term changes in activity budgets. Further studies of how urbanization and intentional feeding influences wildlife behavior can inform management strategies to benefit both wildlife and human health.