My background is mostly in the field of behavioural ecology but in the past few years, I have been exploring the links between behavioural ecology, data-science, social sciences, urban ecology, and conservation through the fields of conservation culturomics, iEcology, spatial ecology, and citizen science. Address: Oxford, UK
Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution, Nov 6, 2019
Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case ... more Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case of little egret using its beak dips as a tool to lure and catch prey goldfish in an artificial environment designed to test predator–prey behavioural foraging games. The egret mimicked the food pellets falling into the pool from a mechanical feeder that fed the goldfish at regular intervals. The falling pellets created ripples in the water that acted as a cue for the prey goldfish to come out of the cover and feed on the floating pellets. The egret learned this phenomenon through time and used its beak dips to create ripples and attract the prey outside. The egret preferably used the location of the feeder in the pool to carry out its beak dipping attempts and maximize its fish capture success. The egret attempted this behaviour more in the largest cover that provided the best refuge to the prey goldfish. The egret beak dipping attempts to lure the prey goldfish out of the cover declined through experimental time as well as with increasing prey kills. As the beak dipping behaviour did not result in a high capture rate of fish, the egret subsequently reduced its attempts through time. This case study illustrates that foraging innovations can occur through learning in laboratory conditions containing a novel but artificial environment.
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban stability (the rate of anthropogenic changes) on animals' behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urban development over time. We show that at least for males, urban stability better explains levels of behavioral flexibility than urbanization level. We further show that urban stability corresponds to other behavioral trai...
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban stability (the rate of anthropogenic changes) on animals' behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urban development over time. We show that at least for males, urban stability better explains levels of behavioral flexibility than urbanization level. We further show that urban stability corresponds to other behavioral trai...
Intraspecific interactions among predators can change the game between a predator and its prey. I... more Intraspecific interactions among predators can change the game between a predator and its prey. Individuals of different size or sex can differ in their responses to conspecific competitors. We studied intraspecific interactions among pairs of little egrets (Egretta garzetta) while foraging on responsive prey (comet goldfish, Carassius auratus). Testing little egrets in an artificial patchy environment both singly and while engaged in social forging in pairs (male & female) at two prey densities, allowed us to explore individual differences in foraging success. We found sexual dimorphism with males being bigger and more aggressive than females. However, female foraging success was positively affected by the time they spent foraging with a conspecific male, suggesting they might be able to mitigate male aggressiveness with an indirect positive interaction. Despite the presence of direct interactions between individuals in the pair, egret foraging success was not affected by such interactions, nor by prey density. Our results demonstrate the importance of sex and an individual's ability to adjust its social behaviour based on the behaviour of others in this predator-prey foraging game.
The first target of the Convention for Biological Diversity aimed to increase public awareness to... more The first target of the Convention for Biological Diversity aimed to increase public awareness towards the values of biodiversity and actions needed to conserve it - a key prerequisite for conservation support. Nevertheless, monitoring success in achieving this target is difficult. Here, we used Google search volume data to evaluate interest in biodiversity and its conservation, and investigated drivers influencing interest across countries. We found that global interest in biodiversity increased, driven mostly by interest in charismatic fauna. However, interest in conservation actions decreased since 2019, driven mostly by reduced interest towards national parks, likely due to the 2019 pandemic. Economic inequality had a negative effect on interest in biodiversity and conservation, while purchasing power had an indirect positive effect through increased education and research. We suggest that increased outreach and education efforts towards biodiversity and conservation is needed, ...
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric when evaluating behavioral changes. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban change (i.e., the rate of anthropogenic changes measured as the change in the level of urbanization over time) on animals’ behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urbanization and urban change levels. We show that at least for males, urban change better explains levels of behavioral flexibil...
Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human-nature interactions, although they ent... more Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human-nature interactions, although they entail inherent biases and necessitate careful validation. Furthermore, people may engage with nature across different culturomic data sets differently. We evaluated people's digital interest and engagement with plant species based on Wikipedia and Google data and explored the conservation implications of these temporal interest patterns. As a case study, we explored the digital footprints of the most popular plant species in Israel. We analyzed 4 years of daily page views from Hebrew Wikipedia and 10 years of daily Google search volume in Israel. We modeled popularity of plant species in these 2 data sets based on a suite of plant attributes. We further explored the seasonal trends of people's interest in each species. We found differences in how people interacted digitally with plants in Wikipedia and Google. Overall, in Google, searches for species that have utility to humans were more common, whereas in Wikipedia, plants that serve as cultural emblems received more attention. Furthermore, in Google, popular species attracted more attention over time, opposite to the trend in Wikipedia. In Google, interest in species with short bloom duration exhibited more pronounced seasonal patterns, whereas in Wikipedia, seasonality of interest increased as bloom duration increased. Together, our results suggest that people's digital interactions with nature may be inherently different depending on the sources explored, which may affect use of this information for conservation. Although culturomics holds much promise, better understanding of its underpinnings is important when translating insights into conservation actions.
The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions wit... more The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness.
Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case ... more Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case of little egret using its beak dips as a tool to lure and catch prey goldfish in an artificial environment designed to test predator–prey behavioural foraging games. The egret mimicked the food pellets falling into the pool from a mechanical feeder that fed the goldfish at regular intervals. The falling pellets created ripples in the water that acted as a cue for the prey goldfish to come out of the cover and feed on the floating pellets. The egret learned this phenomenon through time and used its beak dips to create ripples and attract the prey outside. The egret preferably used the location of the feeder in the pool to carry out its beak dipping attempts and maximize its fish capture success. The egret attempted this behaviour more in the largest cover that provided the best refuge to the prey goldfish. The egret beak dipping attempts to lure the prey goldfish out of the cover declined...
Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution, Nov 6, 2019
Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case ... more Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case of little egret using its beak dips as a tool to lure and catch prey goldfish in an artificial environment designed to test predator–prey behavioural foraging games. The egret mimicked the food pellets falling into the pool from a mechanical feeder that fed the goldfish at regular intervals. The falling pellets created ripples in the water that acted as a cue for the prey goldfish to come out of the cover and feed on the floating pellets. The egret learned this phenomenon through time and used its beak dips to create ripples and attract the prey outside. The egret preferably used the location of the feeder in the pool to carry out its beak dipping attempts and maximize its fish capture success. The egret attempted this behaviour more in the largest cover that provided the best refuge to the prey goldfish. The egret beak dipping attempts to lure the prey goldfish out of the cover declined through experimental time as well as with increasing prey kills. As the beak dipping behaviour did not result in a high capture rate of fish, the egret subsequently reduced its attempts through time. This case study illustrates that foraging innovations can occur through learning in laboratory conditions containing a novel but artificial environment.
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban stability (the rate of anthropogenic changes) on animals' behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urban development over time. We show that at least for males, urban stability better explains levels of behavioral flexibility than urbanization level. We further show that urban stability corresponds to other behavioral trai...
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban stability (the rate of anthropogenic changes) on animals' behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urban development over time. We show that at least for males, urban stability better explains levels of behavioral flexibility than urbanization level. We further show that urban stability corresponds to other behavioral trai...
Intraspecific interactions among predators can change the game between a predator and its prey. I... more Intraspecific interactions among predators can change the game between a predator and its prey. Individuals of different size or sex can differ in their responses to conspecific competitors. We studied intraspecific interactions among pairs of little egrets (Egretta garzetta) while foraging on responsive prey (comet goldfish, Carassius auratus). Testing little egrets in an artificial patchy environment both singly and while engaged in social forging in pairs (male & female) at two prey densities, allowed us to explore individual differences in foraging success. We found sexual dimorphism with males being bigger and more aggressive than females. However, female foraging success was positively affected by the time they spent foraging with a conspecific male, suggesting they might be able to mitigate male aggressiveness with an indirect positive interaction. Despite the presence of direct interactions between individuals in the pair, egret foraging success was not affected by such interactions, nor by prey density. Our results demonstrate the importance of sex and an individual's ability to adjust its social behaviour based on the behaviour of others in this predator-prey foraging game.
The first target of the Convention for Biological Diversity aimed to increase public awareness to... more The first target of the Convention for Biological Diversity aimed to increase public awareness towards the values of biodiversity and actions needed to conserve it - a key prerequisite for conservation support. Nevertheless, monitoring success in achieving this target is difficult. Here, we used Google search volume data to evaluate interest in biodiversity and its conservation, and investigated drivers influencing interest across countries. We found that global interest in biodiversity increased, driven mostly by interest in charismatic fauna. However, interest in conservation actions decreased since 2019, driven mostly by reduced interest towards national parks, likely due to the 2019 pandemic. Economic inequality had a negative effect on interest in biodiversity and conservation, while purchasing power had an indirect positive effect through increased education and research. We suggest that increased outreach and education efforts towards biodiversity and conservation is needed, ...
Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urb... more Global urbanization processes have highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of urban habitats on animal behavior. Behavioral changes are usually evaluated along an urbanization gradient, comparing urban and rural populations. However, this metric fails to consider heterogeneity between urban habitats that can differ significantly in their characteristics, such as their level of environmental variability. We suggest incorporating dimensions of environmental variability into the urbanization metric when evaluating behavioral changes. We tested the importance of both level of urbanization and level of urban change (i.e., the rate of anthropogenic changes measured as the change in the level of urbanization over time) on animals’ behavioral flexibility by comparing reversal learning abilities in house sparrows from sites differing in the rate of urbanization and urban change levels. We show that at least for males, urban change better explains levels of behavioral flexibil...
Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human-nature interactions, although they ent... more Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human-nature interactions, although they entail inherent biases and necessitate careful validation. Furthermore, people may engage with nature across different culturomic data sets differently. We evaluated people's digital interest and engagement with plant species based on Wikipedia and Google data and explored the conservation implications of these temporal interest patterns. As a case study, we explored the digital footprints of the most popular plant species in Israel. We analyzed 4 years of daily page views from Hebrew Wikipedia and 10 years of daily Google search volume in Israel. We modeled popularity of plant species in these 2 data sets based on a suite of plant attributes. We further explored the seasonal trends of people's interest in each species. We found differences in how people interacted digitally with plants in Wikipedia and Google. Overall, in Google, searches for species that have utility to humans were more common, whereas in Wikipedia, plants that serve as cultural emblems received more attention. Furthermore, in Google, popular species attracted more attention over time, opposite to the trend in Wikipedia. In Google, interest in species with short bloom duration exhibited more pronounced seasonal patterns, whereas in Wikipedia, seasonality of interest increased as bloom duration increased. Together, our results suggest that people's digital interactions with nature may be inherently different depending on the sources explored, which may affect use of this information for conservation. Although culturomics holds much promise, better understanding of its underpinnings is important when translating insights into conservation actions.
The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions wit... more The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness.
Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case ... more Behavioural innovations play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. We report a case of little egret using its beak dips as a tool to lure and catch prey goldfish in an artificial environment designed to test predator–prey behavioural foraging games. The egret mimicked the food pellets falling into the pool from a mechanical feeder that fed the goldfish at regular intervals. The falling pellets created ripples in the water that acted as a cue for the prey goldfish to come out of the cover and feed on the floating pellets. The egret learned this phenomenon through time and used its beak dips to create ripples and attract the prey outside. The egret preferably used the location of the feeder in the pool to carry out its beak dipping attempts and maximize its fish capture success. The egret attempted this behaviour more in the largest cover that provided the best refuge to the prey goldfish. The egret beak dipping attempts to lure the prey goldfish out of the cover declined...
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