Fast and furious: host aggression modulates behaviour of brood parasites

Jelínek, Václav; Šulc, Michal; Štětková, Gabriela; Honza, Marcel

doi:10.1101/2020.04.27.063933

Cited by 7 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…It is worth noting that, despite the few known cases when the great reed warblers managed to kill a cuckoo by drowning it in water (Molnár, 1944; Šulc et al., 2020), the mobbing of live female cuckoos by great reed warblers seemingly has little effect on the success rate of parasitic attempts, as cuckoos still manage to lay eggs in the host nests, even when both parents of this larger host are attacking them fiercely (Jelínek et al., 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts

et al. 2021

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To avoid mobbing attacks by their hosts during egg laying, some avian brood parasites have evolved traits to visually and/or acoustically resemble predator(s) of their hosts. Prior work established that reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), a small host species of the brood parasitic common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), delayed returning to the nest when confronted by either the calls of the female cuckoo or that of the predatory sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). It remains less clear, however, whether female cuckoo calls also suppress the nest defences of larger and more aggressive hosts. Such hosts typically attack vigorously, and can even hurt the brood parasitic intruders, instead of fleeing in the face of danger. Here, we tested whether the female cuckoo calls dampen mobbing intensity in a much larger Acrocephalus host of the common cuckoo, the great reed warbler (A. arundinaceus). We presented great reed warbler pairs with female common cuckoo models at their nests without and then with playing back the female‐specific bubbling calls of the cuckoo. As controls, we tested the hosts’ responses to harmless collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) models, also without and then with the playbacks of dove calls. We found that the playback of female brood parasite calls reduced the aggression of hosts towards the cuckoo models as compared to model presentations without female calls, but we detected no such effect of the control calls with dove models. Our results revealed that female cuckoo calls effectively suppress the antiparasitic responses of great reed warbler hosts, which could aid parasites to approach the nest undiscovered and to evade the costly attacks of this large host. Therefore, the female call can be regarded as a general part of the cuckoo's trickery repertoire for successful parasitism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts

et al. 2021

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“…Although it does not seem that host mobbing can always prevent brood parasites from reaching a nest to parasitize it (Gloag et al 2013, Jelínek et al 2020, it has been shown that more aggressive individuals in a host population suffer lower brood parasitism (Fiorini et al 2009, Welbergen & Davies 2009. Our video-recording, together with evidence from other published studies, illustrates that host aggressiveness has the potential for a fatal outcome for parasitic females.…”

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confidence: 63%

“…Although the GRW is one of the most aggressive hosts of the cuckoo (Moskát 2005, Požgayová et al 2013, Jelínek et al 2020, we propose that water below the nest is an important factor that may increases the likelihood that aggressive mobbing by the host results in the death of the cuckoo through drowning or hypothermia. While we were not able to determine the cause of death in the dead cuckoo, we ascertained that although the cuckoo had several plucked feathers on its head, there were no obvious wounds on the body.…”

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confidence: 90%

“…Among insects, aggressive hosts may successfully drive a parasitic queen away, but conflicts can also escalate into a fight between host and parasite which may lead to the death of the parasite (Bogusch et al 2006). Avian hosts can also fiercely defend their nests: they chase, mob and often attack the parasitic female by tearing out feathers and pecking the head and body (Gloag et al 2013, Jelínek et al 2020 in an attempt to impede the parasite from entering their nest and preventing her from laying an egg. There are several indirect pieces of evidence that these host attacks can occasionally result in the death of the parasite, with instances when parasitic females (Molnár 1944, Janisch 1948, Moyer 1980, Loflin 1982, Lorber 1985, Gloag et al 2013 or even males Caught on camera: circumstantial evidence for fatal mobbing of an avian brood parasite by a host…”

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confidence: 99%

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Caught on camera: circumstantial evidence for fatal mobbing of an avian brood parasite by a host

Šulc

Štětková

Procházka

et al. 2020

Journal of Vertebrate Biology

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“…Brood parasites and their hosts have been the focus of considerable research into co-evolutionary arms races (Soler, 2017). But since brood parasites only lay eggs and then usually do not return to host nests (but see Šulc et al 2020), and because egg laying is (especially in obligate brood parasites) very quick (McMaster, Neudorf, Sealy, & Pitcher, 2004; Gloag, Fiorini, Reboreda, & Kacelnik, 2013; Jelínek, Šulc, Štetková, & Honza, 2020), direct observation of parasitism in nature is difficult and identification of parasitic females is problematic. As a consequence, many important aspects of females’ life history strategy are still poorly understood; in obligate brood parasites, we e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic identification of bird females using egg phenotype

Šulc

Hughes

Troscianko

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Identification of individuals greatly contributes to understanding animal ecology and evolution, and in many cases can only be achieved using expensive and invasive techniques. Advances in computing technology offer alternative cost-effective techniques which are less invasive and can discriminate between individuals based on visual and/or acoustic cues. Here, we employ human assessment and an automatic analytical approach to predict the identity of common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) females based on the appearance of their eggs. The cuckoo’s secretive brood parasitic strategy makes studying its life history very challenging. Eggs were analysed using calibrated digital photography for quantifying spotting pattern, size and shape, and spectrometry for measuring colour. Cuckoo females were identified from genetic sampling of their nestlings, allowing us to determine the accuracy of human and automatic female assignment. Finally, we used a novel ‘same-different’ approach that uses both genetic and phenotypic information to assign eggs that were not genetically analysed.Our results supported the ‘constant egg-type hypothesis’, showing that individual cuckoo females lay eggs with a relatively constant appearance and that eggs laid by different females differ more than eggs laid by the same female. The accuracy of unsupervised hierarchical clustering was comparable to assessments of experienced human observers. Supervised random forest analysis showed better results, with higher cluster accuracy. Same-different analysis was able to assign 22 of 87 unidentified cuckoo eggs to seven already known females.Our study showed that egg appearance on its own is not sufficient for identification of individual cuckoo females. We therefore advocate genetic analysis to be used for this purpose. However, supervised analytical methods reliably assigned a relatively high number of eggs without genetic data to their mothers which can be used in conjunction with genetic testing as a cost-effective method for increasing sample sizes for eggs where genetic samples could not be obtained.

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Fast and furious: host aggression modulates behaviour of brood parasites

Abstract: 0Avian brood parasites pose a serious threat for hosts, substantially reducing their fitness which selects 1 1for the evolution of host defences. A classic example of a host frontline defence is mobbing which

Cited by 7 publications

References 48 publications

Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts

Female common cuckoo calls dampen the mobbing intensity of great reed warbler hosts

Caught on camera: circumstantial evidence for fatal mobbing of an avian brood parasite by a host

Automatic identification of bird females using egg phenotype

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