Research Shows Baby Bird Development Harmed by Sound of Cars
taylorvich writes:
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-baby-bird-cars.html
[...] Bird embryos develop outside the mother's body and can be artificially incubated, so it is possible to manipulate an embryo's experience without manipulating the mother.
The research team, led by Dr. Alizee Meillere and Dr. Mylene Mariette from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University (Australia) and Donana Biological Station (Spain), took advantage of this by playing sounds to the eggs of an Australian native bird, the zebra finch.
They discovered that-under otherwise optimal incubation conditions-eggs are less likely to hatch when exposed to traffic noise for five days before hatching, than when exposed to the species native song.
"Both traffic noise and song were played at the same moderate amplitude-65 decibels, which is similar to a conversation level-but something about the acoustic characteristics of the noise caused embryonic death," said Dr. Mariette.
[...] "Nestlings exposed to noise rather than song were slower to grow and showed more severe signs of cellular damage," said Dr. Mariette. "These negative effects were the result of both previous noise exposure before hatching and current exposure during the nestling stage."
More information: Alizee Meillere et al, Pre- and postnatal noise directly impairs avian development, with fitness consequences, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade5868
Mylene M. Mariette, Developmental programming by prenatal sounds: insights into possible mechanisms, Journal of Experimental Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246696
Hans Slabbekoorn, A sound beginning of life starts before birth, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp1664 , www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp1664
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