Zoology/Ethology

Galarconmaza
September 30,2023

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explain and compile the classes from Zool-
ogy and Ethology from my master degree.

Introduction
For the zoology class we will be taking a lot of examples of how things work
in the real world applying the concepts that are shown in every class. The aim
of the subject is to ´´Understand and Predict the organisms response to rapid
environmental change”

1 Urbanization
The rapid density shift between rural population and urban population has
created new environments that will push certain mechanism on the organism
that will be integrated in the urbanization process, about

1.1 Adaptations to Urban Life

There are three level that we can talk about here:

• Habitat modification
– Land cover change
– Forest connectivity
– Organic Input
– CO2 Emission
– Temperature
– Resource Variation
• Species Interaction
– Extinction

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 – Colonization
– Novel Competition
– Predation
– Parasitism
– Facilitation
• Urban Development Scale
– Urban
– Suburban
– Ex - Urban
– Rural
– Forest

Those are the differential aspects that can be measured when we talk about the
urbanization and the differences between the rural and Urban environment

2 Cities as evolutionary novel environments

So it emerge the URBAN ECOLOGY

2.1 Environmental conditions

Lets begin stating the organisms that will be leading the urban colonization,
first those who are defined by the ability to tolerate Environmental conditions

• Stenotipic: Organism that have a narrow range of adaptability to changes

in environmental conditions.
• Eurytopic: Organism that can tolerate a wide range of conditions.

2.2 Food
And those who are defined by their Diet and habitat conditions
• Specialist: Have a narrow ecological niche, limited diet and stricter habitat
requirements, usually just eat one or two tipes of food (koala) and have
dificulty adapting to change.
• Generalist: Able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions
and can make use of variety of different resources (Raccoons)
It is fair to note that most organism do not fit neatly into either group. Imagine
a continuum from highly specialized to broadly generalist species.
One last group that is worth mention it is about the selection on combination
of traits in an organism that trade off between quantity and quality of offspring.

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 • R-selected species:
Species whose populations are governed by their Biotic Potential, maxi-
mum reproductive capacity, which means they have high grow rate but low
survivality; they mostly geared towards the time of re-population. This
strategy is often employed in unpredictable or changing environments.

• K-selected species:
Long growth rate but high survivality hence they have low mortality rates
at childbirth.
those species will have to focues in either Parental invesment or Quantity
offspring

2.3 Predators
For this part we will be discusing the Extinction factor, with a phenomenon
called “Predation Paradox”
In urban ecosystems the predators number grows but the predation rates
decline. This may be due to urbanization fundamentally altering the trophic
dynamics by reducing the necessity to hunt due the huge avability of anthro-
pogenic food.

3 Urban ecosystems
3.1 Challenges of Urban life
• Habitat loss
• Constant human presence
• Disturbance

• Pollution
• Anthropogenic Colonization or prevention

3.2 Urban Filter

When the new environment is settled, new rules are applied for those who can
not win, can not survive
Species remain, colonize or Disappear
And thus a phenomenon occurs, the new species are more similar to each other
than in nature, the Biotic Homogenization

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3.3 Habitat change/loss
The new man-made map is full of mosaics, small remanents of nature, non-
native species. This decreases the food resources and nest opportunities so
therefore decrease the survival and reproductive success and thus decreases the
population size, ending in extinction.

3.4 Habitat degradation

This compact urban design brings changes in the infrastructure of original plant
communities, the intraspecies dynamics, habitat occupation.

3.5 Habitat fragmentation

Now there is less natural space so what happens, large and specialist species
disappear, that is what happens.
There are two areas in an habitat:
• Interior habitat
• Edge habitat
While the edge increases due to the fragmentation the interior decreases which
means, less nest spaces, less humidity, less shadow, less food. Here lies impor-
tant traits that will be crucial to the survivality of the organism, traits like
specializations, mobility, etc. The mobility is something remarkable because it
depends of the connectivity among the patches, flight or dispersal.

3.5.1 Traits
There are some traits that will be essential for the species survival, like:

• Flight Ability
• Dispersal Ability
• Life history traits

– Mobility
– Habitat specialization (Generalist vs Specialist)

3.5.2 Consequences or negative Impacts

• Reduce size of original habitat
• Limited opportunity of movement

• Behavioural Constraint
• Extinction probability

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3.6 Food Resources
There will be more food in general in the city surroundings but the supply and
tropic chain will change. Examples like:
• Reduce in native source food

• Increase in invasive species (ornamental,exotic, etc)

• Antropogenic food (trash, animal feed)
The food is novel and stable through the year you just have to adapt to it.

3.6.1 Consequences
• Change in migratory behaviour (if there is food there is no need to travel
long distances.)
• Spread of diseases
• Lost of the species/offspring behaviour (migratory behaviour)

4 Phases of urbanization
There are three phases:

4.1 ARRIVAL 4.2 4.3

ADJUSTMENT SPREAD
Environmental Fac- Environmental Fac- Environmental Fac-
tors tors tors
• Low difference be-
• High proportion of tween urban/rural • high proportion of
range urbanised environments urbanised areas
• Gradual urban de-
• Long history of ur-
velopment • Close proximity of
ban development
Species Traits urban areas
Species Traits • Behaviour and eco-
Species Traits
logical flexibility
• High population
density in original • Phenotypic plastic- • High reproductive
habitat ity rates
• History traits (fast
• Good dispersal reproduction rate, • Good dispersabil-
ability limited dispersal) ity

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5 Behavioural and ecological predictors of ur-
banization
Among the reasons that a species have to disperse in the environment we can
count: Avoid inbreeding, Increase the successful rate of survival and breed op-
portunity (if they have failed previously). Now what it is left is the following
question: Which species urbanize well and why?
Well...we need to talk about...

5.1 Dispersal
Quick example is the flying capacity, this open a huge field of opportunities. If
they can travel abroad in a fast and reliable way that is good dispersal.

5.2 Immune system and feather attachment

Everything needs an investment, if there is not necessity then is not a good asset
to invest to.
Inmune System
Feather attachment In the natural scenario this acts like a plan B, the plan A
is to run but if they catch then you use plan B, but if there is no predators you
can spare the plan B (Urban environment)

5.3 Breeding range and population size

5.4 Survival rate
5.5 Flight initiation distance
A good indicator to urbanization is the time that it takes to initiate the flight
response (or in a way we can think of the human tolerance). But this will
depended on:
Body size Or we can say that is mass dependant
Brain size

5.5.1 The effect on human interaction

5.6 Cognition and Urbanization

when we talk about cognition, we talk about gathering of information, decision
making, learning, memory, etc.

• Temperament
• Boldness
• Neophobia

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 • Problem solving
• Lid-drawer problem
• Tunnel problem
• Discrmination learning
• Acquisition learning
• Reversal learning
• Inmunocompetence

5.7 Urban Filter

5.8 Urban phenology and timing of reproduction
• Lay date
• Redroductive endocrinology
• Gonadal development
• Nest building
• clutch incubation
• hatching

6 Effects on artificial lights

6.1 Urban light
Direct vs indirect effects
• Testicular growth
• duration of functional testes
• Singing activity
• Effects on reproduction
• Night activity
• Migratory behaviour

7 Urban heat islands

8 Cities as sources of abundant food
more food is theorized to play a role in the reproductive phenology

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9 Urban phenology and timing of reproduction
There is a necessity in this world to synchronise the abundance of food with mat-
ing opportunities caused by the investment in gonads growing process (animals
tend to do it every season, like seasonal adolescence, animals use a biological
clock to do it.).
This processes can be seen as the physiologic machinery in Action, things like:
Sexual behaviour (Dancing, architecture, rituals, molding, singing). So, they
way the know it is THE TIME is by the use of Ambiental Cues like Photore-
ceptors (light), temperature, food resources. And guess what, Urban environ-
ment offers stable food, change in temperature , change in light schedules what
in return will affect every species that thrives in it.

10 Communication in Urban noise

Now that species live in the urban ecosystem and have adapted their lifestyles
to fit in it, they will need to change the way the communicate with each other.

10.1 Urban noise: High/Low frequencies

By entering this realm with a new range of frequencies that are already occupied
(saturated) they will need to use new frequencies, the way it is done is by rising
the frequency of their callings, like we now as rising the volume. This is known
as the Lombard effect/ reflex this is the involuntary tendency of speakers to
increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility
of their voice.
Being louder may be the answer sometimes.

10.2 Effects during COVID shut down

By the time everyone has opted for isolation during COVID season, the animals
(specially birds) had the opportunity to change their loudness, rate and pitch
of their callings to ones that are similar to the ones before urbanization without
the background noise.

10.3 Consequences
• Distribution
• Abundance

• Reproductive success
• Missmatch between parent care and offspring needs (Comunication break-
down)

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 • Acoustic traps: Reduction on foraging success in acoustic predators (bats),
Invisible walls (Crystals or windows that do not bounce back the sound
the bat´s radar)
• Antipredator response (Not paying attention the the alert calls of their
peers caused by the background noise)

11 Light pollution
Polarized light

12 Adaptation to Urban environments

12.1 Evolution vs plasticity
While the evolution relies in the ability to pass changes from one generation
to the next the genetic plasticity relies on the physical changes (phenotypical
changes) in one individual in response to the changes in environment.
Overall this changes can be constrained or influenced by:

• Mutation
• Gene flow
• Genetic Drift

• natural/ sexual selection

• genetic architecture of traits
But only those who already had the specific traits that best suit the urban
environment will colonize and then phenotypic changes/genetic changes will
occur. This is a reason why plasticity is useful at the colonization cause it is
”cheaper”, efficient at generating the optimal urban phenotype thus reducing
the effect of natural selection.

12.2 Waddington development landscape model

Epigenetic landscape
The model visually demonstrates the natural restriction of cell differentiation
potential during normal development. The cell is depicted as a ball at the top
of a slope. As the ball rolls down the slope, it is directed into different possible
paths by the series of hills and valleys1. The lowest points of each valley signify
developmental pathways that a cell can travel, and the highest points define the
limits of the pathway, symbolizing regulation.

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12.3 Genetic assimilation
This is a process where a phenotype, which was originally produced in response
to an environmental condition, later becomes genetically encoded via artificial
selection or natural selection. This does not require the inheritance of acquired
characters, although epigenetic inheritance could potentially influence the result.

12.4 Maternal and epigenetic effects

These are the effects that the mother/ fathers have over their offspring:

• fine-tuning offspring phenotype based on parental environment

• ontogenetic programming by maternal hormones
• evolutionary roles
• short and long term effects (activational/organizational effects)

• Maternal effects
– Egg testosterone and offspring aggressiveness
– Maternal corticosterone and offspring development

12.5 Evolutionary processes

How the evolution in urban environments is influenced?
• Where the urbanization process began

• Where the colonizing individuals come from

• How the urbanization events spread across a larger geographic region

13 Urban predators
14 Cities as source of novel parasites and pathogens
There are three protagonist here:
• Host

• Pathogen
• Vector
Here there will be a equivalent exchange:
Less parasites but more hosts.

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14.1 Effects
• Biodiversity loss and the dilution effect
Biodiversity loss refers to the reduction in the variety of plant and animal
life in urban environments.The dilution effect is a theory that suggests that
a higher diversity of species in an area can decrease the risk of disease, this
is because more diverse communities tend to harbor fewer competent hosts
for any given pathogen, thereby reducing host exposure to the pathogen.
• Resource provisioning and contact rates within urban-adapted species
More food, more individuals, more contact among them.

• Interactions with reservoir hosts in or surrounding urbanized habitats

The contact with the reservoir host is more frequent over time.
• Environmental contaminants, host stress, and susceptibility to infection.
Human contamination impregnates surrounding environments, infecting
the animals with parasites, increasing stress levels due to pollution.

15 Effects of toxins and heacy metals in urban

environments
16 Roles of phenotipic plasticity vs. genetic adap-
tation in urbanization
17 Speciation in cities
18 Invasive species in cities
19 methods to study urban adaptations
20 Human evolution in Urban environments
Since the Agricultural Boom we have been through a lot of modifications, made
possible because:

• More food supply (crops, livestock, commerce, security)

• Changes in diet and lifestyle
• Increase of population (Reorganization of the society)

This tends to increase the parental caring and wealth but in return the number
of offspring decrease. Drop of the mortality rates, growth of the population.
whats the cost?

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 • Human dependent pest became vectors of infectious disease.
• Higher mortality in urban (in early stages of development)
• Loss of ”Old Friends” microbiota
• Deficit in inmunoregulations (allergies)

• increase of autoimmune diseases

• Increase of oxidative stress (air pollution, heavy metals, chemical contam-
ination)
For this new environment we needed new adaptations like:

• Catalysis of immune response

– Black death resistance
– tuberculosis resistance
– Malaria resistance

• skin pigmentation
• Increase O2 carrying capacity
• Allele modulation (diaetes II)

• Lactase persistence
• enzyme adaptations to metabolize chemicals, metabolites.
But some of these adaptation can cause problems over time, problems like Poly-
genetic Traits, this is the selection of genes that give an advantage but at an
unknown cost. Generally this debuffs are expressed in late stages of life that
just now are being discovered. They tend to increase the fertility at the cost of
degenerative complications.

20.1 Transhumanism
This is plain human genes editing, being to correct deficiencies, diseases, enhance
abilities, extend the lifespan, etc. But again there is a problem, being that
just moving a few genes can cause a great impact on the whole system, this
ends in whats called Pleitropy one gene influences multiple, seemingly unrelated
phenotypic traits.

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