Life-history theory predicts host behavioural responses to experimental brood parasitism

Hauber, Márk E.; Samaš, Peter; Anderson, M.; Rutila, Jarkko; Low, Jason; Cassey, Phillip; Grim, Tomáš

doi:10.1080/03949370.2013.851121

Cited by 37 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The immaculate egg model was creamy-white without spots [32]. Real eggs were represented by real cuckoo eggs (redstart cuckoo race), non-painted conspecific redstart eggs, conspecific redstart eggs painted completely black or painted with black spots [34] and great tit ( Parus major ) eggs painted completely dark blue (Bzenec locality) [35]. We painted eggs with two types of non-toxic permanent markers: Sharpie® for black-coloured eggs and Centropen® for the dark blue colour.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Redstart and great tit eggs were collected from freshly abandoned clutches, carefully checked for any cracks, stored in the fridge and used for experiments within 3 days. The term ‘non-cuckoo experimental treatments’ in this study refers to experiments with cowbird, blue, spotted and immaculate models, black-spotted real redstart eggs, complete black redstart eggs and complete dark blue real eggs [32, 34]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The common redstart as a suitable model to study cuckoo-host coevolution in a unique ecological context

Samaš

Rutila²,

Grim

2016

BMC Evol Biol

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BackgroundCo-evolutionary arms-races result in spatio-temporally dynamic relationships between interacting species, e.g., brood parasites and their avian hosts. However, majority of avian co-evolutionary studies are limited to “snap-shots” of a single breeding season in an open-nesting host. In a long-term study (11 breeding seasons), we explored a unique system between the brood parasitic common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) and its host, the common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) which is exceptional among all cuckoo hosts due to being a cavity nester. Conditions in cavities are different from open nests, e.g., lower risks of predation, more favourable microclimate, increased risks of unsuccessful eviction of host offspring by the cuckoo nestling. Different conditions in cavities thus can be expected to shape parasite-host coevolution differently from what is typically studied in open nesting hosts.ResultsIn our highly parasitised nest-box population (32.5%, n = 569 nests) only 35.7% of cuckoo eggs were laid into the nest cup and incubated by redstarts. Host nests shifted availability to later into the breeding season from 2006 to 2016 and cuckoos followed this trend by also shifting their timing of parasitism. Although previous studies revealed that redstarts selectively eject experimental non-mimetic eggs (desertion was not a specific response to foreign eggs), the hosts never ejected naturally-laid cuckoo eggs or cuckoo eggs cross-fostered into naturally non-parasitised nests. We solve the long-standing debate about the origin of cuckoo eggs found on the nest rim: we gained the first direct video-recording evidence that eggs found on the nest rim were mislaid by parasites and not ejected by hosts. Naturally-parasitised nests were deserted more often (18.6%) than control non-parasitized nests (5.6%) or nests artificially parasitised by us (1.4%). This suggests that the sight of the laying cuckoo female is the primary cue that triggers egg rejection (by desertion) in this host. Review of data from this and other study sites (10 populations, n = 853 experiments) demonstrates high variability in rejection rates and shows that populations facing higher parasitism rates reject parasitic eggs with higher frequencies. Surprisingly, cuckoo chicks either growing solitarily or with redstart chicks did not differ in their fledging success.ConclusionsWe suggest that the redstart is an ideal model system to study the flexibility and limits of brood parasite-host co-evolution in an extreme ecological setting.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0835-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The common redstart as a suitable model to study cuckoo-host coevolution in a unique ecological context

Samaš

Rutila²,

Grim

2016

BMC Evol Biol

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“…We visited these nests daily and checked the content ensuring suitability as controls for detecting an observer effect (sensu [63]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naïve hosts of avian brood parasites accept foreign eggs, whereas older hosts fine-tune foreign egg discrimination during laying

2014

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BackgroundMany potential hosts of social parasites recognize and reject foreign intruders, and reduce or altogether escape the negative impacts of parasitism. The ontogenetic basis of whether and how avian hosts recognize their own and the brood parasitic eggs remains unclear. By repeatedly parasitizing the same hosts with a consistent parasitic egg type, and contrasting the responses of naïve and older breeders, we studied ontogenetic plasticity in the rejection of foreign eggs by the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), a host species of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus).ResultsIn response to experimental parasitism before the onset of laying, first time breeding hosts showed almost no egg ejection, compared to higher rates of ejection in older breeders. Young birds continued to accept foreign eggs when they were subjected to repeated parasitism, whereas older birds showed even higher ejection rates later in the same laying cycle.ConclusionsOur results are consistent with the hypotheses that (i) naïve hosts need to see and learn the appearance of their own eggs to discriminate and reject foreign eggs, whereas (ii) experienced breeders possess a recognition template of their own eggs and reject parasitic eggs even without having to see their own eggs. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that other external cues and internal processes, accumulated simply with increasing age, may also modify age-specific patterns in egg rejection (e.g. more sightings of the cuckoo by older breeders). Future research should specifically track the potential role of learning in responses of individual hosts between first and subsequent breeding attempts by testing whether imprinting on a parasitized clutch reduces the rates of rejecting foreign eggs in subsequent parasitized clutches.

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“…Acceptance of hard nonpuncturable models may represent a methodological artifact in hosts that are unable to both puncture the clay or grasp the models due to having small bills (Martín-Vivaldi et al 2002). Therefore, we performed additional experiments where we painted a randomly chosen host egg dark blue with a nontoxic marker (following Hauber et al 2014; hereafter blue conspecific treatment). Such experimental eggs were even more dissimilar to host eggs than blue and white artificial models but were puncturable and thus provided a strong test of host egg discrimination abilities.…”

Section: Egg Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, for puncture ejecter hosts hard plastic model eggs may be impossible to eject (Martín-Vivaldi et al 2002). Second, eggs that are too similar to host eggs may be accepted by hosts despite the ability of hosts to reject more dissimilar eggs (e.g., Hauber et al 2014). Therefore, the use of too "mimetic" experimental eggs can lead to the erroneous conclusion that the particular host did not evolve an ability to reject foreign eggs (Grim 2005).…”

Section: Egg Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic variation in egg ejection rate by great tits across 2 continents

Liang

Møller

Stokke

et al. 2016

BEHECO

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Life-history theory predicts host behavioural responses to experimental brood parasitism

Cited by 37 publications

References 71 publications

The common redstart as a suitable model to study cuckoo-host coevolution in a unique ecological context

The common redstart as a suitable model to study cuckoo-host coevolution in a unique ecological context

Naïve hosts of avian brood parasites accept foreign eggs, whereas older hosts fine-tune foreign egg discrimination during laying

Geographic variation in egg ejection rate by great tits across 2 continents

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