Evicting cuckoo nestlings from the nest: a new anti-parasitism behaviour

Sato, Nozomu; Tokue, Kihoko; Noske, Richard A.; Mikami, Osamu; Ueda, Keisuke

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0540

Cited by 134 publications

(139 citation statements)

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“…Second, gerygones may recognize foreign eggs, but choose to act on this recognition only later in the nesting cycle. Large-billed gerygones sometimes reject little bronze-cuckoo chicks from their nests [13], despite nestling cuckoos being good mimics of gerygone young [31]. Delaying rejection until the chick stage may occur, because there are physical constraints on gerygones removing eggs larger than their own ( [32], but see [33]) or because retaining cuckoo eggs in the nest has the beneficial effect of diluting the risk of further gerygone egg loss should the nest suffer subsequent parasitism [14,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Large-billed gerygones are not reported to reject cuckoo eggs [13], but it is unknown whether this is, because the eggs are cryptic, or because these hosts lack defensive egg rejection altogether [14]. Multiple parasitism of large-billed gerygone nests occurs regularly, and genetic analysis has confirmed that this is due to laying by multiple females rather than maladaptive repeat laying by a single female [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Cryptic cuckoo eggs hide from competing cuckoos

Keller

Langmore

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Interspecific arms races between cuckoos and their hosts have produced remarkable examples of mimicry, with parasite eggs evolving to match host egg appearance and so evade removal by hosts. Certain bronze-cuckoo species, however, lay eggs that are cryptic rather than mimetic. These eggs are coated in a low luminance pigment that camouflages them within the dark interiors of hosts' nests. We investigated whether cuckoo egg crypsis is likely to have arisen from the same coevolutionary processes known to favour egg mimicry. We added high and low luminance-painted eggs to the nests of large-billed gerygones (Gerygone magnirostris), a host of the little bronze-cuckoo (Chalcites minutillus). Gerygones rarely rejected either egg type, and did not reject natural cuckoo eggs. Cuckoos, by contrast, regularly removed an egg from clutches before laying their own and were five times more likely to remove a high luminance model than its low luminance counterpart. Given that we found one-third of all parasitized nests were exploited by multiple cuckoos, our results suggest that competition between cuckoos has been the key selective agent for egg crypsis. In such intraspecific arms races, crypsis may be favoured over mimicry because it can reduce the risk of egg removal to levels below chance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Cryptic cuckoo eggs hide from competing cuckoos

Keller

Langmore

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Recordings were made using a directional microphone Sennheiser ME 66 connected to a digital audio recorder Edirol R-09, at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz stereo (16 …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and Chrysococcyx minutillus) and their hosts have shown that host parents were able to reject parasitic chicks either through the desertion of parasitized nests soon after hatching [15] or active eviction of parasitic young out of the nest [16,17], and later work suggests that host rejection behaviour, in turn, may have selected for reciprocal host chick mimicry in bronzecuckoos [15,18]. These findings have challenged prior theoretical arguments that learned chick discrimination would be maladaptive in hosts of evictor brood parasites such as cuckoos [19] (see also [20]) and suggest that a coevolutionary arms race similar to that observed at the egg stage may also occur at the nestling stage [15][16][17] (but see [21]). Visual mimicry of host chicks has also been reported in parasitic finches (Vidua sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host–parasite coevolution beyond the nestling stage? Mimicry of host fledglings by the specialist screaming cowbird

2012

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Egg mimicry by obligate avian brood parasites and host rejection of non-mimetic eggs are well-known textbook examples of host-parasite coevolution. By contrast, reciprocal adaptations and counteradaptations beyond the egg stage in brood parasites and their hosts have received less attention. The screaming cowbird (Molothrus rufoaxillaris) is a specialist obligate brood parasite whose fledglings look identical to those of its primary host, the baywing (Agelaioides badius). Such a resemblance has been proposed as an adaptation in response to host discrimination against odd-looking young, but evidence supporting this idea is scarce. Here, we examined this hypothesis by comparing the survival rates of young screaming cowbirds and non-mimetic shiny cowbirds (Molothrus bonariensis) cross-fostered to baywing nests and quantifying the similarity in plumage colour and begging calls between host and cowbird fledglings. Shiny cowbirds suffered higher post-fledging mortality rates (83%) than screaming cowbirds (0%) owing to host rejection. Visual modelling revealed that screaming cowbirds, but not shiny cowbirds, were indistinguishable from host young in plumage colour. Similarly, screaming cowbirds matched baywings' begging calls more closely than shiny cowbirds. Our results strongly support the occurrence of host fledgling mimicry in screaming cowbirds and suggest a role of visual and vocal cues in fledgling discrimination by baywings.

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“…Because this misimprinting hypothesis was proposed to explain the absence of adaptation, it cannot be tested directly, but two corollary predictions are testable in species that do show offspring recognition: first, chick recognition can be an effective host defense when reliable information is available, and second, such recognition would involve learning. 7, 10 Two definitive cases of chick recognition have recently been documented; 4,13,18 however, although previous experience honed host rejection abilities in one of these hosts, 4 the learning mechanisms have yet to be elucidated. Here we confirm the corollary predictions of the misimprinting hypothesis in an unlikely system-brood parasitism within species-and describe the learning mechanism involved in chick recognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks

Shizuka

Lyon

2009

Nature

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Avian brood parasites and their hosts provide model systems for investigating links between recognition, learning, and their fitness consequences. [1][2][3][4] One major evolutionary puzzle has continued to capture the attention of naturalists for centuries: why do hosts of brood parasites generally fail to recognize parasitic offspring after they have hatched from the egg, 5-9 even when the host and parasitic chicks differ to almost comic degrees? 7 One prominent theory to explain this pattern proposes that the costs of mistakenly learning to recognize the wrong offspring make recognition maladaptive. 10 Here we show that American coots, Fulica americana, can recognize and reject parasitic chicks in their brood by using learned cues, despite the fact that the hosts and the brood parasites are of the same species. A series of chick cross-fostering experiments confirm that coots use first-hatched chicks in a brood as referents to learn to recognize their own chicks and then discriminate against later-hatched parasitic chicks in the same brood. When experimentally provided with the wrong reference chicks, coots can be induced to discriminate against their own offspring, confirming that the learning errors proposed by theory can exist. 10 However, learning based on hatching order is reliable in naturally parasitized coot nests because host eggs hatch predictably ahead of parasite eggs. Conversely, a lack of reliable information may help to explain why the evolution of chick recognition is not more common in hosts of most interspecific brood parasites.The puzzling absence of chick recognition as a host defense against avian brood parasites has fuelled a long-standing and unresolved debate over what constrains the evolution of such a seemingly obvious host adaptation, producing many alternative hypotheses. 8, 9,[11][12][13][14] Learning is an important component of host defenses such as egg recognition, 2,15,16 , and theory suggests that it could be fundamental to the presence or absence of chick recognition in some taxa as well. 10,17 One prominent theory 10 shows that if chick recognition were learned, as it is with eggs, 2,15,16 then the evolution of parasitic chick recognition in hosts of common cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, could be constrained simply by the costs of errors in learning. Shortly after hatching, cuckoo chicks evict all host eggs and chicks, 7 and hosts are assumed to learn the features of their own eggs and chicks in their first breeding attempt. 2,15 According to the theory, a host parasitized during its first breeding attempt would falsely imprint on the lone parasite as its own chick, and thereafter reject its own offspring for the rest of its life. The extreme fitness costs of such misimprinting 10 could potentially explain why so many cuckoo hosts, and perhaps the hosts of other parasitic species, 17 do not recognize parasitic chicks. Because this misimprinting hypothesis was proposed to explain the absence of adaptation, it cannot be tested directly, but two corollary predictions are tes...

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Evicting cuckoo nestlings from the nest: a new anti-parasitism behaviour

Cited by 134 publications

References 13 publications

Cryptic cuckoo eggs hide from competing cuckoos

Cryptic cuckoo eggs hide from competing cuckoos

Host–parasite coevolution beyond the nestling stage? Mimicry of host fledglings by the specialist screaming cowbird

Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks

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