Flight responses of eastern grey kangaroos to benign or harmful human behaviour

Globally, wilderness is being converted for rural and agricultural land use. In countryside landscapes, many habitat structures remain intact, providing suitable habitat for wildlife species that can accurately assess novel risks and develop tolerance to benign disturbances. Associative learning that promotes avoidance and also facilitate desensitisation to benign disturbance is key to persisting in these landscapes. Conversely, learning to distinguish and avoid negative interactions with humans, like hunting, is vital. To determine if eastern grey kangaroos are capable of learning from previous interactions with humans, we tested the flight responses of wild kangaroos which have previously experienced either low or high frequencies of harmful and benign encounters with humans. We found that eastern grey kangaroos rapidly habituated to benign disturbance as there was no significant difference in assessment distance between groups that previously experienced low or high frequencies of di...

全球范围内，荒野正被转化为乡村与农业用地。在乡村景观中，多数生境结构仍保持完整，可为能够精准评估新型风险并对良性干扰形成耐受的野生动物物种提供适宜栖息环境。能够促进回避行为、同时助力对良性干扰实现脱敏的联想学习（Associative learning），是物种在这类景观中得以存续的核心要素。与之相对，学会辨识并规避与人类的负面互动（如狩猎行为）同样至关重要。为探明东部灰袋鼠（eastern grey kangaroo）是否能够从过往与人类的互动中习得经验，我们对野生袋鼠的逃逸反应进行了测试——这些袋鼠此前与人类遭遇的有害、良性互动频次分别处于低、高水平区间。我们发现，东部灰袋鼠可快速对良性干扰产生习惯化效应，此前经历低、高频率人类互动的两组袋鼠在风险评估距离上并未出现显著差异，原文后续内容以“di...”截断