Certain behavioural traits, including innovation and reduced neophobia, may facilitate successful invasions by allowing first arrivals to overcome the challenges of a novel environment. However, the extent to which these traits occur in invasive populations in comparison with native populations, and whether these traits' prevalence remains consistent throughout a species’ introduced range, have been scarcely investigated. We tested whether object neophobia, food neophobia and two levels of motor innovation in the common myna, Acridotheres tristis, a widespread avian invader, in its native range (India) as well as across an invasive range (Israel), are more prevalent at the edge of the invasion front relative to its centre and to the native ranges. We found that individuals from the invasion front were more innovative and more tolerant of novel food than those from both nonfront invasive populations and the native range. Moreover, these traits showed a gradual loss within the invasive population with increasing time since population establishment. Our results provide crucial empirical evidence to support the adaptive flexibility hypothesis for invasion processes and emphasize the role of behaviour in biological invasions.

中文翻译：

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创新和减少的新恐惧症推动了广泛的鸟类入侵者的入侵成功

某些行为特征，包括创新和减少的新恐惧症，可以通过允许先到者克服新环境的挑战来促进成功入侵。然而，与本地种群相比，这些特征在入侵种群中出现的程度，以及这些特征的流行是否在整个物种的引入范围内保持一致，几乎没有被调查过。我们测试了常见八哥的物体恐惧症、食物恐惧症和两个级别的运动创新，Acridotheres tristis，一种广泛存在的鸟类入侵者，在其原生范围（印度）以及跨入侵范围（以色列），在入侵前沿相对于其中心和原生范围的边缘。我们发现来自入侵前沿的个体比来自非前沿入侵种群和本地范围的个体更具创新性和对新食物的耐受性。此外，随着种群建立以来的时间增加，这些特征在入侵种群中逐渐消失。我们的研究结果为支持入侵过程的适应性灵活性假设提供了重要的经验证据，并强调了行为在生物入侵中的作用。