Supplementary Database from Integrating behaviour and ecology into global biodiversity conservation strategies

Insights into animal behaviour play an increasingly central role in species-focused conservation practice. However, progress towards incorporating behaviour into regional or global conservation strategies has been more limited, not least because standardized datasets of behavioural traits are generally lacking at wider taxonomic or spatial scales. Here we make use of the recent expansion of global datasets for birds to assess the prospects for including behavioural traits in systematic conservation priority-setting and monitoring programmes. Using International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List classifications for more than 9500 bird species, we show that the incidence of threat can vary substantially across different behavioural categories, and that some types of behaviour—including particular foraging, mating and migration strategies—are significantly more threatened than others. The link between behavioural traits and extinction risk is partly driven by correlations with well-established geographical and ecological factors (e.g. range size, body mass, human population pressure), but our models also reveal that behaviour modifies the effect of these factors, helping to explain broad-scale patterns of extinction risk. Overall, these results suggest that a multi-species approach at the scale of communities, continents and ecosystems can be used to identify and monitor threatened behaviours, and to flag up cases of latent extinction risk, where threatened status may currently be underestimated. Our findings also highlight the importance of comprehensive standardized descriptive data for ecological and behavioural traits, and point the way towards deeper integration of behaviour into quantitative conservation assessments.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation’.

对动物行为的深入研究，在以物种为核心的保护实践中发挥着日益核心的作用。然而，将行为纳入区域或全球保护战略的进展却相对有限，这在很大程度上是因为在更广泛的分类学或空间尺度上，普遍缺乏行为特征的标准化数据集。本研究借助近期鸟类全球数据集的扩容成果，评估将行为特征纳入系统性保护优先级设定与监测项目的可行性。研究依托国际自然保护联盟（International Union for Conservation of Nature）红色名录（Red List）的分类标准，对9500余种鸟类展开分析，结果显示不同行为类群的受威胁比例存在显著差异，部分行为类型——包括特定的觅食、交配与迁徙策略——的受威胁程度显著高于其他类群。行为特征与灭绝风险之间的关联，部分源于与已被广泛证实的地理、生态因素（如分布区面积、体重、人类人口压力）的相关性，但本研究的模型同时揭示，行为会调控这些因素的影响效应，有助于解释大尺度下的灭绝风险格局。总体而言，本研究结果表明，在群落、大陆与生态系统尺度下开展的多物种研究方法，可用于识别与监测受威胁的行为类型，并标记出当前受威胁等级可能被低估的潜在灭绝风险案例。本研究结果同时强调了生态与行为特征的全面标准化描述数据的重要性，并为将行为更深程度地融入量化保护评估指明了方向。本文属于《将行为与种群及群落动态关联：行为生态学新方法在保护中的应用》专题栏目内容。