Laura Marina Biondi

• PhD
• Researcher at National Scientific and Technical Research Council

Animal innovations have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences. The occurrence and persistence of an innovation require several processes, including exploration, social and asocial learning, and low neophobia. In addition, the identity of the innovator may determine how these new behaviours are socially transmitted. Taking into accou...

The study of traits that enable species to thrive in urban habitats is critical to a better understanding the evolution of urban ecosystems. Here, we examined variation in boldness, neophobia, and exploratory behavior in a generalist raptor, the Chimango Caracara, Milvago chimango, occurring in areas with different urbanization level. We also focus...

Innovative behavior is considered one of the main factors facilitating the adaptation of animals to urban life. However, the relationship between urbanization and innovativeness is equivocal, perhaps reflecting aspects of urban environments that influence differently the behavioural traits underlying the occurrence of an innovation. In this work, w...

Innovation, a process that plays an important role in the ecology and evolution of species, is considered an expression of behavioral flexibility in animals. Here we analyzed innovative problem-solving ability and performance enhancement through learning in the Olrog's Gull (Larus atlanticus), under controlled processes and experimental conditions....

In this study, we analyzed the variation in cognitive flexibility in the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango), across areas with different levels of urbanization. To assess this, we utilized the reversal learning assay which measures the ability to adapt behavior in response to changes in environmental contingencies. We also investigated the impact...

Physiological mechanisms underlie behavioural responses that have important implications for individual fitness. While personality variation is well established in reptiles, the underlying physiological mechanisms are less understood. Studies on lizards have yielded mixed results regarding the relationships between behavioural traits and physiologi...

In Strigiformes, which comprise the Tytonidae and Strigidae families, hindlimbs play a crucial role in prey capture. Yet, their bone proportions remain understudied despite the established link between avian hindlimb skeletal morphology and ecological traits. We examined the proportions of the femur, tibiotarsus, and tarsometatarsus in 18 owl speci...

En un mundo cada vez más urbanizado, algunas aves, como las rapaces, colonizan y prosperan con éxito en entornos urbanos, lo que conlleva a un incremento de las interacciones con los humanos. Éstas pueden ser positivas, como la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos, o negativas, como los conflictos ocasionados cuando las rapaces se alimentan, se des...

Long-term memory — information retention over long timescales — can allow animals to retain foraging skills and efficiently respond to seasonal and changing environments. Most long-term memory research is with captive species, focusing on spatial, individual or object recognition, with less known about wild species and the retention of motor task a...

In an increasingly urbanized world, some raptors successfully colonize and thrive in urban environments, leading to more frequent interactions with humans. These interactions can be either positive, such as providing ecosystem services, or negative, resulting in human-wildlife conflicts. Despite growing literature on these interactions, a comprehen...

Urbanization can adversely impact animal populations through factors such as loss of natural habitat, introduction of nonnative competitors and predators, pollution, and increased exposure to pathogens. Because they are top predators, raptors are considered good indicators of ecosystem health. However, there is limited information about how environ...

INTRODUCCIÓN La flexibilidad comportamental permite a los animales responder a los cambios del ambiente y adaptarse a las nuevas condiciones, siendo por tanto uno de los mecanismos que les permite explotar entornos novedosos, como es el caso de las ciudades. En aves se ha estudiado la capacidad de suprimir respuestas comportamentales dominantes e i...

Animals have to face different challenges related to the rapid expansion of urbanization in their environments, so being behaviorally flexible will allow them to thrive in these scenarios. Here we aimed to examine the response of a south American threatened species, the Olrog’s Gull (Larus atlanticus), to novel stimuli in urban and non-urban habita...

Innovation (i.e., a new solution to a familiar problem, or applying an existing behavior to a novel problem) plays a fundamental role in species’ ecology and evolution. It can be a useful measure for cross-group comparisons of behavioral and cognitive flexibility and a proxy for general intelligence. Among birds, experimental studies of innovation...

There has been an increase in interest in the study of behavioral flexibility for its role in how organisms face disturbances and changes in their environment. However, there is not much research on this topic for seabirds, whose conservation status is affected by multiple issues related to changes in their environment. The goal of this paper was t...

El chimango (Milvago chimango) es un ave rapaz neotropical muy abundante en el centro y sur de Argentina. Es una especie generalista con baja neofobia, alta tendencia exploratoria y audacia frente al humano, lo que favorece su colonización y establecimiento en ambientes urbanos. Este estudio analiza el comportamiento del chimango en un gradiente ur...

The chimango caracara (Phalcoboenus chimango) is a neotropical raptor, highly abundant in central and southern Argentina. It is a generalist species with low neophobia, high exploratory tendency, and boldness towards humans, which favor its colonization and thriving in urban environments. This study analyzes the abundance and behavior of the chiman...

Hematological and blood biochemistry values are useful in assessing the physiological, nutritional, and overall health status of captive and free-living wildlife. For the chimango caracara (Milvago chimango), the most common raptor species in Argentina, reference intervals (RIs) for hematology and blood biochemistry are lacking. For this study, 86...

Resumen La flexibilidad comportamental permite a los animales responder a los cambios del ambiente y adaptarse a las nuevas condiciones, siendo por tanto uno de los mecanismos que les permite explotar entornos novedosos, como las ciudades. Sin embargo, los estudios comparando la flexibilidad comportamental en poblaciones rurales y urbanas resultar...

Behavioral innovation is considered an expression of behavioral flexibility and is a source of phenotypic plasticity in animals. In this study, we explored the main components of behavioral innovation (neophobia and exploratory behavior) with respect to social context and age in the Olrog's Gull Larus atlanticus. Twenty consecutive experimental ses...

Behavioral differences between individuals are expected when animal face novel stimuli. Aversion responses in such situations are called neophobia. Here, we assessed the degree of neophobia towards objects with respect to social context and age in Olrog’s Gulls (Larus atlanticus). The responses of individuals in trials in which a novel object was p...

Birds exhibit variation in fear behaviour in response to an approaching human within and between species and across different habitat contexts. We analyze urban and rural burrowing owls’ variation in risk perception along separate but consecutive days (Treatment 1) and risk perception within the same day (Treatment 2). Fear behaviour was measured a...

La heterogeneidad del paisaje es un factor que incrementa los hábitats y nichos ecológicos disponibles para aves. Al mismo tiempo las transformaciones del paisaje producen cambios en las composiciones poblacionales de aves con menor neofobia. En la ciudad de Neuquén la matriz del paisaje en torno a su aeropuerto cambió de rural a periurbano, ocasio...

In an ever-changing environment, the ability to adapt choices to new conditions is essential for daily living and ultimately, for survival. Behavioural flexibility allows animals to maximise survival and reproduction in novel settings by adjusting their behaviour based on specific information and feedback acquired in their current environments. How...

Diversidad de Tetrápodos en un mosaico de ambientes del sudeste de la ecorregión Pampeana como herramienta para planificar en conservación Abstract: Tetrapod's diversity at the southeast Pampas as a tool for conservation planning. Despite advances in the understanding about the biodiversity in some regions, this is in general rather dispersed and h...

The behaviour of birds in urban habitats often differs from that of birds in surrounding natural and rural habitats, with the attenuation of fear responses to humans a primary behavioural adaptation to urban life. In breeding birds, fear responses and nest-defence have been linked to reproductive success. We studied the nest-defence behaviour of ma...

Postnatal development of subterranean habits was investigated in Los Talas’ tuco-tuco Ctenomys talarum, a subterranean caviomorph rodent endemic from South America. Since in this species, some key morpho-functional traits related to scratch-digging behaviour—a form of underground progression—are already present during early ontogeny and develop pro...

The hindlimb of the Polyborinae has always been characterized as long when it was compared with other diurnal raptors; however, no empirical work has been done to support such a traditional well-known fact. The objective of this work is to analyze the femur, tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus of this group to corroborate whether this assumption has a...

Exploration represents an important way by which organisms evaluate environment information. The decision of whether or not an animal should investigate environmental changes may influence the extent to which animals learn about their surroundings and cope with habitat modifications. We analysed exploration behaviour in a suburban population of a r...

Tidal marshes are narrow wetlands distributed worldwide between the ocean and a variety of inland-habitats. The high diversity of interacting terrestrial habitats may influence terrestrial species composition and abundance in marshes. We investigated if characteristics of small mammal assemblages inhabiting the South-West-Atlantic (SWA) marshes are...

We studied object exploration and manipulative behavior in wild-caught Chimango Caracaras (Milvago chimango), an opportunistic and generalist raptor species, in relation to age and sex differences. Each bird was presented with six objects. We then recorded the latencies to approach and first contact with the objects, the number of objects explored,...

Owls of Argentina: conservation status and research priorities. – In Argentina, 22 owl species (Tytonidae and Strigidae) have been recorded. The aims of this work were to identify the most important regions for owls in the country; to determine biological variables for a risk assessment; and to relate their con-servation status to the degree of kno...

Milvago chimango is a gregarious raptor showing great ecological plasticity. Their ability to explore new resources has allowed them to survive in areas with increasing human modification. In this study, we evaluated the social learning ability in wild-caught individuals of M. chimango. In particular, we tested whether an ‘observer’ individual coul...

Positive interactions between species of terrestrial vertebrates occur frequently and it is common among birds. However, such interactions have generally been overlooked in raptor field studies. We analysed interactions between Red-backed Hawks (Buteo polyosoma) and Chimango Caracaras (Milvago chimango) in order to determine the characteristics of...

We report a preliminary assessment of problem solving as an estimate of behavioural innovation and learning ability of a generalist and abundant raptor, Milvago chimango, under controlled conditions in aviaries. Experimental tests consisted in presentation of a Plexiglas box with four lids leading to isolated pieces of meat. We recorded time to fir...

Aunque a nivel mundial existen numerosos antecedentes sobre hábitos tróficos de aves rapaces, la información disponible para Argentina es escasa y sesgada. Con el objetivo de sintetizar el estado actual del conocimiento sobre la ecología trófica de aves rapaces en Argentina, se presenta una revisión de la información publicada sobre dieta, estrateg...

We studied the main taphonomic attributes (breakage, orientation and size-frequency distribution) of modern shell piles of Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) accumulated by snail kites, in order to establish distinctive characteristics that allow the recognition of similar deposits in the fossil record. The study was conducted around three shallow lake...

Diet of the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) during the breeding season in the southeastern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. – The diet of the Chimango Caracara (Milvago Chimango) during the breeding season was studied by analyzing 150 pellets and 108 prey remains collected at roost and nest sites. Insects represented 96% of all prey items. Ca...