Photo credit: melikeobscura
by Halimat Olunlade, Social Media Manager
Noise impacts all forms of life, even in the world’s most remote areas. The Galapagos Islands, which once inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, are now helping us understand the effects of noisy human activity on the natural world. A new study recently covered in BBC examines the impact of vehicle noise pollution on the island’s songbirds.
Conducted by experts from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, the study found that yellow warblers altered their behavior in response to traffic noise. Galápagos yellow warblers are a species of small territorial birds endemic to the region. While it’s typical for males to sing loudly as a warning to approaching intruders, the researchers discovered that birds living near roads exhibited increased aggression compared to those in quieter areas. Birds in all sites altered their calls in response to traffic noise, regardless of their distance from a road.
This avian “road rage” is attributed to noise interference with the birds’ ability to communicate. The researchers visited nesting sites on two islands, Santa Cruz and Floreana, and played two recordings: the call of an intruding male warbler and the same call alongside traffic noise. They found that yellow warblers living near roads on both islands, even tiny Floreana, which has only around 100 people, reacted more aggressively to the recording of the intruding male along with the traffic noise. Males at all nesting sites, even those further from roads, increased the minimum frequencies of their songs when played the traffic recordings, likely to keep their calls from getting lost in the low-frequency vehicle noise.
Overall, these changes suggest that warblers adjust their calls to cope with traffic noise. Dr. Caglar Akcay, a senior lecturer at ARU, states, “It also highlights the significant impact of human activities on wildlife behavior” even in remote places like the Galapagos Islands. A healthy world is a harmonious one, where we can coexist, learn from and live within nature without causing harm. If we are to achieve this goal, we must tackle noise pollution not only in our loudest cities but also in our most remote natural spaces. As our founder Dr. Daniel Fink often says, a quieter world will be a better and healthier world for all. This includes the Galapagos yellow warblers.
