Common cuckoo females are not choosy when removing an egg during parasitism

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081766%3A_____%2F16%3A00460270" target="_blank" >RIV/68081766:_____/16:00460270 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11310/16:10332841

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arw085" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arw085</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arw085" target="_blank" >10.1093/beheco/arw085</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Common cuckoo females are not choosy when removing an egg during parasitism

Original language description

Females of avian brood parasites have evolved various tactics to succeed in their reproductive strategy. Many of these adaptations, for example speed and timing of egg laying or egg mimicry, have been investigated in detail. However, one peculiar habit of parasitic females is still not fully understood—egg removal by adult parasitic females before laying their own egg. Here, we examined 2 hypotheses to explain this behavior in the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Both hypotheses explored if the cuckoo females can inspect eggs in host nests and selectively remove some of them to improve their fitness. First, we investigated the “parasite competition hypothesis, which proposes that the cuckoo removes an egg from the host nest to get rid of a previously laid parasitic egg from another cuckoo female. Second, we proposed and investigated a new “mimicry improvement hypothesis stating that the commonncuckoo female removes 1 host egg to improve mimicry of its egg in the host clutch and thus increase the chance of acceptance. Randomization tests revealed that cuckoo females are not selective and remove 1 randomly chosen egg from the host nest. We suggest that egg selection behavior could be too costly because it requires time and the cuckoo benefits most from minimizing the time spent at the nest due to aggressiveness of the host.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_x - Unclassified - Peer-reviewed scientific article (Jimp, Jsc and Jost)

CEP classification

EG - Zoology

OECD FORD branch

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Project

<a href="/en/project/GAP506%2F12%2F2404" target="_blank" >GAP506/12/2404: Host-parasite interaction as an extreme form of parent-offspring conflict</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2016

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Behavioral Ecology

ISSN

1045-2249

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

27

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

1642-1649

UT code for WoS article

000389773900009

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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