DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj72h
title: Data from: Eurasian tree sparrows are more food neophobic and habituate to novel objects more slowly than house sparrows

description: Most research on the variables that allow for introduced species to
 succeed and become invasive has focused on environmental and ecological
 factors. Fewer studies have assessed the roles of behavioral and cognitive
 traits. To help fill this knowledge gap, we studied neophobia, aversive
 behavior towards novelty, in the non-native Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer
 montanus), and compared results to previous work in a more successful
 invasive congener, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). We assessed the
 neophobia of wild-caught Eurasian tree sparrows by measuring their
 responses to novel objects and novel foods and their ability to habituate
 to initially novel objects. We predicted that Eurasian tree sparrows, as
 less successful invaders, would overall be more neophobic than house
 sparrows. Although we did not observe differences in neophobia towards
 novel objects in the two species, Eurasian tree sparrows were
 significantly less willing than house sparrows to try novel foods.
 Eurasian tree sparrows were also slower to habituate to repeated
 presentations of the same initially novel object compared to house
 sparrows. Multiple factors certainly influence invasion success, but our
 results suggest that neophobia might limit the success of an introduced
 species in novel environments.
description: We captured wild Eurasian tree sparrows (<em>Passer
 montanus</em>) from a private field site in Illinois, United States.
 Sparrows were transported to Louisiana State University where we conducted
 neophobia trials. These behavioral assays consisted of three weeklong
 trials to assess responses to novel objects (week 1) and foods (week 2) as
 well as the sparrows' abilities to habituate to repeated
 presentations of the same initially novel object (week 3). We followed
 methods used in Kimball et al. 2022 (Novel objects alter immediate early
 gene expression globally for ZENK and regionally for c-fos in neophobic
 and non-neophobic house sparrows, published in <em>Behavioural Brain
 Research</em>). Behavioral trials were recorded, and then the
 recordings were watched by two observers (KJK and EBC). Video watchers
 noted the time during the hour-long trials at which each sparrow
 approached and fed from the food dish, where novel objects or foods were
 placed. Because male and female Eurasian tree sparrows cannot be
 distinguished by plumage characteristics, we determined the sex of each
 sparrow by examining gonads in the body cavity after the birds were
 euthanized after behavioral trials.  We compared the
 Eurasian tree sparrows' behavioral responses to those of house
 sparrows (<em>Passer domesticus</em>) collected in a previous
 study (Kimball et al. 2022). Again, house sparrow data were collected
 using the same methods. The manuscript and its associated dataset for the
 house sparrow study can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113863.  For more details on our methods, please read the associated manuscript.
description: # Data from: Eurasian tree sparrows are more food neophobic and habituate
 to novel objects more slowly than house sparrows
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj72h](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj72h) ## Description of the data and file structure Here, we are providing three files used to gather and analyze the data in this project. There are two Excel files and one R Studio script. Throughout these files, you will see ETSP and HOSP; these represent the four-letter alpha codes for each bird species in this project. ETSP = Eurasian tree sparrow; HOSP = house sparrow. The first Excel file (Eurasian tree sparrow neophobia_ETSP data) contains all the data associated with the Eurasian tree sparrow neophobia trials. There are seven tabs on this Excel spreadsheet. The first tab contains the data used to assess repeatability between the two observers who watched the video recordings. The second, third, and fourth tabs show the data for each Eurasian tree sparrow during the object neophobia, food neophobia, and object habituation trials, respectively. The final three tabs summarize each sparrow's average approach and feeding latencies during each of the three trials. These averages were calculated in the third subsection of the R Studio script (i.e., Calculate the average latencies per bird per trial type), then the feeding latencies were used to check correlations between trials. The following is a list a definitions of column headings used in this first Excel file (Eurasian tree sparrow neophobia_ETSP data): * Video_ID: an arbitrary identifying number used to link each video between observers for repeatability calculations * ETSP_ID: here, as throughout the dataset, ETSP = "Eurasian tree sparrow"; this is the number on each aluminum band applied to the birds in field and is used as a unique identifier for each sparrow in the data analyses * Video_Title: the name we gave to each video recording * Watcher_Initials: initials of the research who provided the score associated with each video recording * Date_of_Video: the date that each video recording and associated trial took place * Trial_Type: the type of trial that took place in the video - either our object neophobia, food neophobia, or novel object habituation trials * Treatment: the treatment condition (object type, food type, or control condition) used in that trial * Novel objects included: a purple plastic egg (Egg), a white plastic cover over half of the food dish (Cover), a red food dish (Dish), a coiled yellow pipe cleaner over the edge of the dish (Pipe), and a blinking white light over the food dish (Light) * Novel foods included: shredded cheddar cheese (Cheese), diced kiwi fruit (Kiwi), fruit-flavored rainbow cereal (Cereal), and smooth peanut butter (PB). * "Control" refers to trials that were conducted without novel objects or novel foods to measure response times without the presence of novelty. * Approach_Latency: the time it took (in seconds) for sparrows to approach the food dish (i.e., perch on the dish to inspect the food inside) * Feed_Latency: the time it took (in seconds) for sparrows to peck at and eat food in the dish * Approach_Status: a binary term for whether a sparrow approached the dish during the 1-hour trial period (1 = yes; 0 = no) * Feed_Status: a binary term for whether a sparrow fed from the dish during the 1-hour trial period (1 = yes; 0 = no) * Object: during the object neophobia trials, the type of novel object presented in that trial (see list of objects above) * Trial_Number: an ordinal number assigned to each trial within an individual sparrow during each type of trial; the first trial was "1," the second "2," and so on within each series of trials (i.e., object neophobia, food neophobia, and novel object habituation) * Sex: whether the individual sparrow was female (F) or male (M) * Capture_Method: whether the individual bird was captured using a "nest box" trapdoor or a "mist net" * Food: during the food neophobia trials, the type of novel food presented in that trial (see list of foods above) * Treatment: during the novel object habituation trials, this column indicated whether the sparrow received the "control" condition or a novel object during a specific trial. Once the birds started being presented novel objects (i.e., on day 2), we indicate which item they received in this column. * Exposure: this column refers to the *n*th presentation of a novel object (e.g., exposure = "1" is the first presentation of a novel object) * Avg_Approach_time: the average approach time (in seconds) during experimental treatments (i.e., non-control conditions) for each sparrow within each trial type * Avg_Feed_time: the average time to feed (in seconds) during experimental treatments (i.e., non-control conditions) for each sparrow within each trial type The second Excel file (Eurasian tree sparrow neophobia_Confidence interval calculations) summarizes how we calculated the confidence intervals for each beta estimate given in the Cox regression outputs. Unfortunately, the Cox regression summary outputs only provide standard errors, but from that, we can calculate confidence intervals. This spreadsheet shows the confidence interval calculations for both Eurasian tree sparrows and house sparrow datasets. These confidence intervals are reported in various tables in our manuscript. Column headings are defined within this spreadsheet. Lastly, the R Studio script contains the code used to analyze these data. The script should be easy to follow, as we have left comments explaining what it being analyzed and the associated results. Where behavioral data from house sparrows are being analyzed, we reference a dataset that we are not directly providing here. Those data were originally published in *Behavioural Brain Research* (Kimball et al. 2022), and the link to those data can be accessed below. However, we recommend organizing those data in a way that is similar to how the Eurasian tree sparrow data are organized in the first Excel spreadsheet here (with separate tabs containing the same data as in the Eurasian tree sparrow data file for each experiment - object neophobia, food neophobia, and object habituation). Specifically, include sparrow ID, feeding latency, feeding status (0 = did not feed within 1-hr trial; 1 = did feed within 1-hr trial), treatment, object/food ID or exposure number, and sex. Capture method does not need to be included or tested in house sparrows, because all were captured with a mist net. In our code, you will see references to the data file "HOSP.data," which was organized as described in the previous sentence and used to create objects such as "HOSP.obj" and "HOSP.food" that can be found in our analyses. In our code for the Cox regressions conducted to compare the behavioral responses of the two species, readers will also find references to a data file called "Both species data.xlsx." This data file is a compilation of the same Eurasian tree sparrow and house sparrow data mentioned above, but all in one file. Eurasian tree sparrow data have been provided here, but readers must retrieve the house sparrow data from the link to Kimball et al. (2022) provided below. Once both data files are gathered, readers can construct this combined file themselves by combining the bird ID (we recommend naming each bird with their alpha code then ID number, such as ETSP1 and HOSP17), feeding latency, feeding status, object type (object neophobia and habituation trials), food type (food trials only), exposure number (habituation trials only), trial number, sex, capture method, and species identity (can be abbreviated ETSP or HOSP) from the separate datasets. Separate tabs should be constructed for each trial type; we named those tabs "Object neophobia," "Food neophobia," and "Habituation." This combined data file and certain objects created from it (e.g., "Passer.obj" and "Passer.hab") are referenced in our code. ## Sharing/Access information Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: * Eurasian tree sparrow data and code used to analyze both datasets are included on this webpage. * House sparrow neophobia data (originally published by Kimball et al. (2022) in *Behavioural Brain Research*) can be accessed here: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113863](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113863). * Downloading the "rptR" package requires reference to the following repository link: [http://R-Forge.R-project.org](http://R-Forge.R-project.org). ## Code/Software Data were analyzed using R v 4.2.3 (R Core Team 2023). The R Studio script attached here references all of the downloaded packages used to analyze and visualize the data. These included: readxl, ICC, arm, VGAM, MCMCglmm, coda, rptR (see above link), survival, survminer, coxme, ggplot2, car, and plotrix.