DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t76hdr805
title: Data for: Little parental response to anthropogenic noise in an urban songbird, but evidence for individual differences in sensitivity

description: Anthropogenic noise exposure has well-documented behavioral,
 physiological and fitness effects on
 organisms.  However, whether different noise regimes
 evoke distinct responses has rarely been investigated, despite
 implications for tailoring noise mitigation
 policies.  Urban animals might display low
 responsiveness to certain anthropogenic noise regimes, especially
 consistent noise (e.g. freeway noise), but might remain more sensitive to
 more diverse noise regimes.  Additionally, whether
 individuals differ in noise sensitivity is a rarely explored issue, which
 is important to fully understand organismal responses to
 noise.  To address these knowledge gaps, we used a field
 experiment to measure how urban great tits (Parus major) altered parental
 behaviors in response to two noise regimes: consistent freeway noise, and
 a diverse anthropogenic noise regime that incorporated variability in
 noise type and temporal occurrence.  We also evaluated
 whether sex, age, or a well-described personality trait, novel environment
 exploration behavior, were associated with responses to noise, although
 our power to assess individual differences in responses was somewhat
 limited.  We found no evidence for mean population-level
 changes in nestling provisioning behaviors during either noise
 treatment.  However, despite this overall canalization
 of behavior, there was evidence for individual differences in noise
 sensitivity, particularly during the diverse noise
 treatment.  Females and birds that explored a novel
 environment more rapidly (fast explorers) reduced nestling provisioning
 rate more relative to baseline levels than males and slow explorers during
 the diverse urban noise, but not during the consistent freeway
 noise.  Furthermore, first year breeders and fast
 explorers displayed larger increases in latency to return to the nest box
 relative to baseline conditions during the diverse noise
 only.  Results suggest that urban animal populations
 might become overall tolerant to anthropogenic noise, but that certain
 individuals within these populations nonetheless remain sensitive to
 certain types of noise exposure.
description: We exposed great tits (<em>Parus major</em>) breeding
 on relatively quiet territories within an urban area (Antwerp, Belgium) to
 anthropogenic noise during the nestling stage and assessed parental
 responses to noise disturbance.  Noise exposure treatments consisted of
 two types:  (1) consistent broadband freeway noise, and (2) a
 "diverse" noise regime incorporating different anthropogenic
 noise types that occurred at variable temporal intervals.  These noise
 exposure treatments lasted for 1 h, and were each proceded by a baseline
 recording in which parental behaviors were assessed in absence of noise
 disturbance.  Noise exposure treatments occurred on adjacent days, or 1-2
 days apart.  We measured nestling provisioning rate (feeding visits per
 min), latency to return to the nest box, and the average amount of time
 spent in the nest box via vieo-recording.  We also investigated whether
 sex, age, or exploratory personality type (measured prior to the noise
 exposure experiment using a standard test) were related to responses to
 noise exposure.