Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event
ABSTRACT Recognising and rejecting parasitic eggs is one of the most common anti‐parasitism strategies used by host birds. However, the egg rejection of some hosts exhibits behavioural plasticity. To investigate whether the egg rejection behaviour of host birds changes after encountering a parasitis...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70825 |
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| author | Bin Li Longwu Wang Jianping Liu Wei Liang |
| author_facet | Bin Li Longwu Wang Jianping Liu Wei Liang |
| author_sort | Bin Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Recognising and rejecting parasitic eggs is one of the most common anti‐parasitism strategies used by host birds. However, the egg rejection of some hosts exhibits behavioural plasticity. To investigate whether the egg rejection behaviour of host birds changes after encountering a parasitism event, we conducted egg rejection experiments on the locally most common host of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), the grey bushchat (Saxicola ferreus) in Yunnan, China. When a single pure white egg of the white‐rumped munia (Lonchura striata) or a blue model egg was individually added to the nest of the grey bushchat, the rejection rate for the white‐rumped munia eggs was as high as 93.3%, whereas the rejection rate for the blue model egg was minimal (5.56%). However, when the grey bushchat rejected the munia egg and a blue model egg was subsequently added to its nest, the rejection rate for the blue model egg was significantly higher, reaching 54.5%. When recognised, the presence of a non‐mimetic foreign egg in the nest may then act as a cue indicating high parasitism risk for the host. Consequently, the bird may intensify its inspection of nest eggs, leading to increased rejection of the previously accepted blue model eggs. Our results are consistent with the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis, suggesting that as the parasitism risk increases, the grey bushchat adjusts its acceptance threshold for foreign eggs to become more stringent. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7ec77add0ad042dd94854974a8e124bf |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj-art-7ec77add0ad042dd94854974a8e124bf2025-01-29T05:08:41ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582025-01-01151n/an/a10.1002/ece3.70825Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism EventBin Li0Longwu Wang1Jianping Liu2Wei Liang3College of Biological Sciences and Engineering North Minzu University Yinchuan ChinaMinistry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences Hainan Normal University Haikou ChinaCollege of Biological Sciences and Engineering North Minzu University Yinchuan ChinaMinistry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences Hainan Normal University Haikou ChinaABSTRACT Recognising and rejecting parasitic eggs is one of the most common anti‐parasitism strategies used by host birds. However, the egg rejection of some hosts exhibits behavioural plasticity. To investigate whether the egg rejection behaviour of host birds changes after encountering a parasitism event, we conducted egg rejection experiments on the locally most common host of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), the grey bushchat (Saxicola ferreus) in Yunnan, China. When a single pure white egg of the white‐rumped munia (Lonchura striata) or a blue model egg was individually added to the nest of the grey bushchat, the rejection rate for the white‐rumped munia eggs was as high as 93.3%, whereas the rejection rate for the blue model egg was minimal (5.56%). However, when the grey bushchat rejected the munia egg and a blue model egg was subsequently added to its nest, the rejection rate for the blue model egg was significantly higher, reaching 54.5%. When recognised, the presence of a non‐mimetic foreign egg in the nest may then act as a cue indicating high parasitism risk for the host. Consequently, the bird may intensify its inspection of nest eggs, leading to increased rejection of the previously accepted blue model eggs. Our results are consistent with the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis, suggesting that as the parasitism risk increases, the grey bushchat adjusts its acceptance threshold for foreign eggs to become more stringent.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70825brood parasitism riskoptimal acceptance thresholdrecognition mechanismSaxicola ferreus |
| spellingShingle | Bin Li Longwu Wang Jianping Liu Wei Liang Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event Ecology and Evolution brood parasitism risk optimal acceptance threshold recognition mechanism Saxicola ferreus |
| title | Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event |
| title_full | Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event |
| title_fullStr | Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event |
| title_short | Cuckoo Hosts Fine‐Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event |
| title_sort | cuckoo hosts fine tune their egg rejection after experiencing a parasitism event |
| topic | brood parasitism risk optimal acceptance threshold recognition mechanism Saxicola ferreus |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70825 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT binli cuckoohostsfinetunetheireggrejectionafterexperiencingaparasitismevent AT longwuwang cuckoohostsfinetunetheireggrejectionafterexperiencingaparasitismevent AT jianpingliu cuckoohostsfinetunetheireggrejectionafterexperiencingaparasitismevent AT weiliang cuckoohostsfinetunetheireggrejectionafterexperiencingaparasitismevent |