Post-ejection nest-desertion of common cuckoo hosts: a second defense mechanism or avoiding reduced reproductive success?

Moskát, Csaba; Rosendaal, Erik C.; Boers, Myra; Zölei, Anikó; Bán, Miklós; Komdeur, Jan

doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1109-7

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Moskát et al. ). As these warblers lay one egg per day (Leisler & Schulze‐Hagen ), this was the fourth day following the appearance of the first host egg in a clutch.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We categorized it as post‐ejection nest desertion (sensu Moskát et al. ), where desertion was probably caused by the reduced clutch size. As ‘post‐ejection nest desertion’ was a quick response here (observed after 1 d the experiment started), reducing potential response period of host from 6 d to only one, we omitted this nest from the data set used for statistical analyses of single (green) parasitic eggs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…) to control for the potential effect of different clutch sizes on the response variables (Moskát et al. ). For the dataset of the majority egg type, the year was not considered as previous studies in this population did not reveal any year effect (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How to Spot a Stranger's Egg? A Mimicry‐Specific Discordancy Effect in the Recognition of Parasitic Eggs

et al. 2014

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Egg discrimination by hosts is an antiparasitic defence to reject foreign eggs from the nest. Even when mimetic, the presence of brood parasitic egg(s) typically alters the overall similarity of all eggs in a clutch, producing a discordant clutch compared to more homogenous clutches of composed only of hosts' own eggs. In multiple parasitism, the more foreign eggs are laid in the nest, the more heterogeneous the overall clutch appears. Perceptual filters and recognition templates cannot explain the known pattern of lower rejection rates of foreign eggs in multiple vs. single parasitism. We therefore assessed the role of clutch homogeneity and manipulated the colour of one or more eggs in the clutches of great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) hosts of common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus). Varying the colours of both the majority and the minority eggs caused predictable shifts in the rejection of the focal egg(s), and ejection rates of the minority egg colour consistently increased but only when it belonged to a more mimetic egg colour, relative to the less mimetic colour of majority eggs. The results imply that in addition to sensory filters, and template-based cognitive decision rules, discordancy-based rejection is affected by the overall clutch appearance and interacts with specific colours varying in the extent of mimicry, to contribute to the recognition decisions of hosts to reject parasitic eggs.

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“…Moskát et al. ). As these warblers lay one egg per day (Leisler & Schulze‐Hagen ), this was the fourth day following the appearance of the first host egg in a clutch.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How to Spot a Stranger's Egg? A Mimicry‐Specific Discordancy Effect in the Recognition of Parasitic Eggs

et al. 2014

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“…Furthermore, desertions sometimes occur after successful ejections of the parasitic eggs. These post‐ejection nest desertions frequently occur in small clutches, but rarely in large clutches, suggesting that they are a response to small clutches (Moskát et al ). Thus, caution is needed when considering desertion as a genuine response to brood parasitism.…”

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Nest desertion cannot be considered an egg‐rejection mechanism in a medium‐sized host: an experimental study with the common blackbirdTurdus merula

Soler¹,

Ruiz-Raya

Roncalli

et al. 2015

Journal of Avian Biology

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Two main mechanisms of egg rejection, the main defence of hosts against brood parasites, have been described: ejection and desertion. Desertion of the parasitized nest is much more costly and is usually exhibited by small-sized host species unable to remove the parasitic egg. However, nest desertion is frequently assumed to be an anti-parasite strategy even in medium or large-sized host species. Th is assumption should be considered with caution because: 1) large-sized hosts able to eject the parasitic egg should eject it rather than desert the nest, and 2) breeding birds may desert their nests in response to diff erent disturbances other than brood parasitism. Th is problem is especially important in the common blackbird Turdus merula because this is a medium-sized species, potential host of the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus , in which desertion has been frequently reported as a response to cuckoo egg models. Here, we seek to determine whether nest desertion can be considered a response unequivocally directed to the parasitic egg in medium-sized hosts using the blackbird as the study species. In an experimental study in which we have manipulated levels of mimicry and size of experimental eggs, we have found that both colour (mimetic and non-mimetic; at least for human vision) and size (small, medium, and large) signifi cantly aff ected ejection rates but not nest desertion rates. In fact, although large eggs disproportionally provoked nest desertion more frequently than did small or medium-sized eggs, cuckoo-sized parasitic eggs were not deserted allowing us to conclude that desertion is unlikely to be an adaptive response to brood parasitism at least for this species.

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“…;Roldan & Soler 2011;Kilner & Langmore 2011;. From the parasite's point of view, the lack of related nest mates determines the absence of indirect costs of within-brood competition, which favours the evolution of strategies that maximize the success of the individual parasitic chick(Godfray 1995;Lichtenstein 2001), such as removal or destruction of host eggs during laying(Davies & Brooke 1988;Soler et al 1997;Payne 2005), eviction of host eggs and chicks from the nest(Rothstein 1990;Honza et al 2007) and killing of host nest mates by the newly hatched parasitic chick(Spottiswoode & Koorevaar 2012).These strategies pose costs to the hosts that range from moderate (one or more host chicks can fledge) to severe (loss of the entire host clutch), generating a gradient of parasite virulence(Kilner 2005) that is likely to determine the variation in the evolution of host defences(Servedio & Hauber 2006;Soler 2013), such as recognition and ejection of foreign eggs and/or chicks(Davies & Brooke 1989;Langmore et al 2003;Davies 2011), desertion of parasitized nests(Moskát et al 2011;Krüger 2011) and mobbing of parasitic…”

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Parasitism and cooperation in the nests of carrion crows

Hernando¹

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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Avian brood parasitism: What it is and how it evolved. How do brood parasites choose their hosts? Behaviour at the nest of the parasitic chicks Host-parasite coevolutionary arms race Great spotted cuckoo and its Paleartic hosts Introduction to the chapters Chapter 2: Mating system of the great spotted cuckoo, a comparative study Chapter 3: From parasitism to mutualism: unexpected interactions between a cuckoo and its host Chapter 4: The high begging intensity of great-spotted cuckoo nestlings favours crow nest-mates Chapter 5: Nest sanitation in cooperatively breeding carrion crows CHAPTER 2: MATING SYSTEM OF THE GREAT

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Post-ejection nest-desertion of common cuckoo hosts: a second defense mechanism or avoiding reduced reproductive success?

Cited by 12 publications

References 64 publications

How to Spot a Stranger's Egg? A Mimicry‐Specific Discordancy Effect in the Recognition of Parasitic Eggs

How to Spot a Stranger's Egg? A Mimicry‐Specific Discordancy Effect in the Recognition of Parasitic Eggs

Nest desertion cannot be considered an egg‐rejection mechanism in a medium‐sized host: an experimental study with the common blackbirdTurdus merula

Parasitism and cooperation in the nests of carrion crows

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