我们都熟悉这样一个概念，即野生动物在城市环境中对人类的警惕程度较低。

例如，在城市中，一些鸟类（例如野生鸽子）很容易在几米之内接近（甚至可能允许手工捕获自己！），而它们在非城市环境中的对应物往往更加警惕。我们。

Biologists have long tried to understand this pattern. A commonly cited explanation is habituation, a process by which animals experiencing a repeated benign stimulation display a decrement in a behavior in response to that stimulus.

For example, animals exposed to a high level of harmless human traffic may eventually be less likely to escape approaching humans.

一个genetic predisposition?

一个theory that has received less attention is that animals occurring in urban habitats are genetically predisposed to be less wary to humans and those that tend to be more wary of people avoid settling in areas where dense human populations occur.

The idea that individual animals have genetically-determined ‘personalities’ is not new. Just as some people tend to be outgoing whilst others are more introverted, animals also display consistent differences in behaviour between individuals.

我们打算测试的是，单个动物的个性是否有助于确定它们在成年生活期间决定定居的地方。这是一个重要的决定，因为在正确的环境中定居可以最大化动物获得足够的资源成功繁殖的能力。

Ultimately we were interested in understanding which factors contribute to the wariness of animals to humans, with the aim of minimizing the impact of human presence on the behaviour and ecology of wild animals.

一个rmed with researchers with backgrounds in conservation biology, behavioural ecology and genetics we set out to find out whether animal personalities do indeed help determine where individual animals settle.

一个rmed with researchers with backgrounds in conservation biology, behavioural ecology and genetics we set out to find out whether animal personalities do indeed help determine where individual animals settle.

Our study species of choice was the black swan (Cygnus atratus），一种在澳大利亚的城市和非城市环境中常见的鸟类。我们多年来一直在研究该物种，包括通过公民科学项目记录整个澳大利亚的天鹅的运动。

We collected behavioral and genetic information on these swans from一个城市andone non-urban人口。

我们做了什么？

我们的目的是首先探索天鹅对人类的警惕是否与已知与其他动物性格相关的基因的变化有关。警告是使用称为飞行起始距离（FID）的度量来衡量的 - 动物逃脱了即将来临的威胁的距离。对于更警惕的个体或物种，预计FID会更长。

了解不同物种的FID对于保护生物学很有用，因为它使我们能够在引起对这些物种的干扰之前确定人们应如何允许人们接近某些物种。金博宝188

一个主要重点我们的研究是为了记录尽可能多的澳大利亚鸟类的FID来协助其保护。

因此，我们对两个人群的天鹅的FID进行了测量。我们还捕获了天鹅，并采集了小血液样本，使我们能够探索他们的遗传构成。我们决定关注两个与其他物种相关的警惕行为的基因 - 多巴胺受体D₄（（DRD4) and serotonin transporter (SERT) genes.

我们发现了什么？

我们的第一个结果并不奇怪 - 天鹅对人类的警惕程度较高，人们密度较高。我们可以将来自城市人口的天鹅接近13米的平均距离，然后才能离开我们，而相应的距离为96米，在非城市地点。

我们可以将来自城市人口的天鹅接近13米的平均距离，然后才能离开我们，而相应的距离为96米，在非城市地点。

一个lthough we found no variation at the SERT gene, we found six different genotypes (genetic variants) of the DRD4 gene. One genotype was particularly common, with 89% of birds at the urban site possessing the genotype.

此外，具有这种常见基因型的鸟类对人类的警惕不如稀有基因型的鸟类，这表明对人类的警惕确实至少是部分遗传确定的。

尽管这些结果令人兴奋，但我们的下一个发现是锦上添花。尽管在城市地点的大多数鸟类中发现了常见的“大胆基因型”，但非城市地点只有60％的鸟类拥有这种基因型。

Swans at the non-urban site were more likely to be genetically-predisposed to be wary. This suggests that black swans do indeed appear to settle in areas based on their genetically-determined personalities.

我们的发现具有许多影响。首先，旨在最大程度地减少人类对动物骚扰的措施可能需要通过人口接近人口，因为人类对人类的恐惧可能会有所不同。

Secondly, our study suggests that certain individual animals may be able to cope better in heavily disturbed habitats. This has important implications for captive breeding programs of threatened species that will eventually be released in close proximity to humans. Individuals earmarked for reintroduction in these areas could be selected based on their personality and ability to cope with higher levels of human disturbance.