Birds introduced in new areas show rest disorders

Abstract

All colonizing individuals have to settle in a novel, conspecific-free environment. The introduction process should be poorly compatible with a good rest. We compared the resting behaviour of radio-tagged house sparrows (Passer domesticus) experimentally translocated into new, conspecific-free areas (introduced individuals, n = 10), with that of translocated sparrows that settled in naturally established populations (controls, n = 5). Resting habits of introduced sparrows markedly differed from those of control birds: they did not vocalize before going to roost, they changed their roosting habitat and they roosted 24 ± 7 min later and departed 13 ± 4 min earlier from the roost, resulting in a 5% rest debt. Because colonizing a new environment is expected to require heightened cognitive and physical activities, which in turn are constrained by the quality and duration of rest, we hypothesize that rest disorders and resulting cognitive impairments of newly released individuals could functionally contribute to the low post-release survival observed in (re)introduction attempts.