Urban blackbirds have shorter telomeres

Abstract

Urbanization, one of the most extreme human-induced environmental changes, represents a major challenge for many organisms. Anthropogenic habitats can have opposing effects on different fitness components, for example, by decreasing starvation risk but also health status. Assessment of the net fitness effect of anthropogenic habitats is therefore difficult. Telomere length is associated with phenotypic quality and mortality rate in many species, and the rate of telomere shortening is considered an integrative measure of the 'life stress' experienced by an individual. This makes telomere length a promising candidate for examining the effects of urbanization on the health status of individuals. We investigated whether telomere length differed between urban and forest-dwelling common blackbirds (Turdus merula). Using the terminal restriction fragment assay, we analysed telomere length in yearlings and older adults from five population dyads (urban versus forest) across Europe. In both age classes, urban blackbirds had significantly shorter telomeres (547 bp) than blackbirds in natural habitats, indicating lower health status in urban blackbirds. We propose several potential hypotheses to explain our results. Our findings show that even successful city dwellers such as blackbirds pay a price for living in these anthropogenic habitats.

Keywords: birds; human-induced environmental change; telomeres; urbanization.

Figure 1.

Telomere length of blackbirds for each habitat in all study locations combined. Box plots show the median, upper and lower quartiles, maximum and minimum values, and outliers. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 2.

Proportion of old adult blackbirds (≥2 years old) in urban and forest habitats for each location. Numbers within each bar represents sample sizes. (Online version in colour.)