Human activities are increasingly confronting animals with unfamiliar environmental conditions. For example, habitat change and loss often lead to habitat fragmentation, which can create barriers of unsuitable and unfamiliar habitat affecting animal movements and survival. When confronted with habitat changes, animals’ cognitive abilities play an important, but often neglected part in dealing with such change. Animals must decide whether to approach and investigate novel habitats (spatial neophilia) or whether to avoid them (spatial neophobia) due to potential danger. For species with strict habitat preferences, such as the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), which is an open habitat specialist, understanding these novelty responses may be especially important for predicting responses to habitat changes. The Gouldian finch is a polymorphic species, with primarily red or black head colors, which are linked to differing behavioral phenotypes, including novelty reactions. Here we investigate responses to novel habitats (open, dense) in the Gouldian finch, manipulating the color composition of same-sex pairs. Two experiments, each consisting of novel open and novel dense habitat, tested birds in opposite head color combinations in the two experiments. We measured the number of approaches birds made (demonstrating conflict between approach and avoidance), and their entry latency to novel habitats. Gouldian finches showed more approach attempts (stronger approach-avoidance conflict) toward the dense as compared to the open habitat, confirming their open habitat preferences. Black-headed birds also hesitated longer to enter the dense habitat as compared to the open habitat, particularly in experiment 1, appearing less neophilic than red-headed birds, which showed similar entry latencies into both habitat types. This is surprising as black-headed birds were more neophilic in other contexts. Moreover, there was some indication that pairings including at least one black-headed bird had a stronger approach-avoidance conflict than pairings of pure red-headed birds. Results suggest that the black-headed birds use a cognitive strategy typical for residents, whereas red-headed birds use a cognitive strategy known for migrants/nomads, which may cognitively complement each other. However, as 70% of the population in the wild are black-headed, the spatial wariness we document could be widespread, which may negatively affect population persistence as habitats change.

中文翻译：

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变化世界中的认知：红头古尔迪安雀比黑头鸟更容易进入空间陌生的栖息地

人类活动越来越多地使动物面临陌生的环境条件。例如，栖息地的变化和丧失往往会导致栖息地的破碎化，这会造成不合适和陌生的栖息地障碍，影响动物的运动和生存。当面临栖息地变化时，动物的认知能力在应对此类变化中扮演着重要的角色，但往往被忽视。由于潜在的危险，动物必须决定是否接近和调查新的栖息地（空间新恋癖）或是否避开它们（空间新恋癖）。对于具有严格栖息地偏好的物种，例如作为开放栖息地专家的 Gouldian 雀科 (Erythrura gouldiae)，了解这些新奇反应对于预测对栖息地变化的反应可能尤为重要。Gouldian 雀是一种多态性物种，头部主要为红色或黑色，这与不同的行为表型有关，包括新奇反应。在这里，我们调查了古尔迪安雀对新栖息地（开放、密集）的反应，操纵了同性对的颜色组成。两个实验，每个实验都由新的开放和新的密集栖息地组成，在两个实验中测试了头部颜色相反的鸟类。我们测量了鸟类接近的次数（证明接近和回避之间存在冲突），以及它们进入新栖息地的潜伏期。与开放栖息地相比，古尔迪安雀对密集栖息地表现出更多的接近尝试（更强的接近回避冲突），证实了它们对开放栖息地的偏好。与开放栖息地相比，黑头鸟进入密集栖息地的犹豫时间也更长，特别是在实验 1 中，与红头鸟相比，黑头鸟显得更不亲近，红头鸟在两种栖息地类型中的进入延迟时间相似。这是令人惊讶的，因为黑头鸟在其他情况下更喜欢新事物。此外，有一些迹象表明，包括至少一只黑头鸟的配对比纯红头鸟的配对具有更强的接近回避冲突。结果表明，黑头鸟使用居民特有的认知策略，而红头鸟则使用以迁徙者/游牧民族着称的认知策略，它们可能在认知上相互补充。然而，由于野外 70% 的人口是黑头，我们记录的空间谨慎可能是普遍的，