Use of anthropogenic landscapes in a wild Columba livia (Rock Dove) population

Despite the role of many domestic animals as model organisms, our
understanding of their undomesticated conspecifics is comparatively poor.
This limits our ability to infer the eco-evolutionary context of phenomena
studied in the laboratory, and to explore domestication. The domestic
pigeon’s (Columba livia) wild form is the Rock Dove. By studying five
GPS-tagged Rock Doves in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, we present the first
individual-level assessment of undomesticated Rock Dove movements,
revealing extensive use of anthropogenic habitats in both a roosting and
foraging context. This association with humans provides tantalising
opportunities for research into the predomestication human-pigeon
relationship. More generally, this work highlights the value of
researching laboratory model species in nature.

尽管诸多家养动物已被用作模式生物，但学界对其未被驯化的同种个体的了解仍相对匮乏。这限制了我们推断实验室研究现象的生态-进化背景，以及探索驯化过程的能力。家鸽（Columba livia）的野生型为岩鸽（Rock Dove）。本研究在苏格兰外赫布里底群岛对5只佩戴GPS追踪器的岩鸽进行观测，首次完成了未驯化岩鸽移动模式的个体水平评估，结果显示其在栖息与觅食场景中均广泛利用人为活动生境。这种与人类的关联，为探究驯化前的人鸽互动关系提供了极具吸引力的研究契机。从更广泛的视角而言，本研究凸显了在自然环境中开展实验室模式物种研究的重要价值。