Behavioral innovation promotes alien bird invasions

Abstract

Behavioral innovation is believed to represent the ability of species to adapt to novel environments and to thus affect the observed establishment success of alien species in a new range. However, the relative importance of behavioral innovation in explaining alien species establishment among key event-, location-, and species-level factors remains poorly evaluated. In addition, the effects of technical innovation in food searching and handling techniques and consumer innovation in the use of new foods on establishment success are not clear. Here, based on a global dataset including information on 247 species across 9,899 successful and 2,370 failed introduction events spanning 199 countries or regions worldwide, we show that the behavioral innovation rate is a key factor facilitating alien bird establishment success after considering propagule pressure, climate matching, historical invasional meltdown, and life-history traits. Furthermore, we find that technical innovation is more influential than consumer innovation in explaining establishment success. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the effect of behavioral innovation on the establishment success of alien species in new ranges and may help predict the response of both native and alien species to accelerating global change during the Anthropocene.

Keywords

• biological invasion
• behavioral innovation
• global change
• behavioral plasticity
• alien bird