Intraspecific brood parasitism in the moorhen: parentage and parasite-host relationships determined by DNA fingerprinting

McRae, Susan B.; Burke, Terry

doi:10.1007/s002650050224

Cited by 126 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Recently it has been suggested that the alternative reproductive tactics of the sexes may be linked in some species (Petrie 1986;Emlen and Wrege 1986;McRae and Burke 1996;Alves and Bryant 1998). For example, in species with biparental care, host males might cooperate with parasitic females by allowing access to the nest in exchange for copulations.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Some benefits that could affect host-parasite cooperation have been considered previously, but all of the costs and benefits have not been integrated into a cohesive or synthetic framework. Moreover, most of the attention has focused narrowly on one benefit (quasi-parasitism, in which host males sire parasitic eggs), while other potential benefits to host males have been almost completely ignored (but see McRae and Burke 1996). For example, in species whose parasites have nests of their own (Brown and Brown 1988;Gibbons 1986;Jackson 1993;Lyon 1993a), host males may sire some of the eggs the parasites lay in their own nests (McRae and Burke 1996).…”

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Paternity-Parasitism Trade-Offs: A Model and Test of Host-Parasite Cooperation in an Avian Conspecific Brood Parasite

2002

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Abstract. Efforts to evaluate the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of conspecific brood parasitism in birds and other animals have focused on the fitness costs of parasitism to hosts and fitness benefits to parasites. However, it has been speculated recently that, in species with biparental care, host males might cooperate with parasitic females by allowing access to the host nest in exchange for copulations. We develop a cost-benefit model to explore the conditions under which such host-parasite cooperation might occur. When the brood parasite does not have a nest of her own, the only benefit to the host male is siring some of the parasitic eggs (quasi-parasitism). Cooperation with the parasite is favored when the ratio of host male paternity of his own eggs relative to his paternity of parasitic eggs exceeds the cost of parasitism. When the brood parasite has a nest of her own, a host male can gain additional, potentially more important benefits by siring the high-value, low-cost eggs laid by the parasite in her own nest. Under these conditions, host males should be even more likely to accept parasitic eggs in return for copulations with the parasitic female. We tested these predictions for American coots (Fulica americana), a species with a high frequency of conspecific brood parasitism. Multilocus DNA profiling indicated that host males did not sire any of the parasitic eggs laid in host nests, nor did they sire eggs laid by the parasite in her own nest. We used field estimates of the model parameters from a four-year study of coots to predict the minimum levels of paternity required for the costs of parasitism to be offset by the benefits of mating with brood parasites. Observed levels of paternity were significantly lower than those predicted under a variety of assumptions, and we reject the hypothesis that host males cooperated with parasitic females. Our model clarifies the specific costs and benefits that influence host-parasite cooperation and, more generally, yields precise predictions about expected levels of host male paternity. These predictions will enable a more rigorous assessment of field studies designed to test adaptive hypotheses of host-parasite cooperation.

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Paternity-Parasitism Trade-Offs: A Model and Test of Host-Parasite Cooperation in an Avian Conspecific Brood Parasite

2002

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“…The four foreign conspecific eggs were marked by permanent marker pen and added into the centre of the experimental clutch. We chose to add or exchange four eggs since this is the mid-point number of the known range of foreign eggs received by moorhen nests in nature (McRae & Burke, 1996). The mean clutch size at our study site was 7.14 ± 1.55 (3-10, N = 72).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parasitic female common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) (hereafter moorhens) lay 1-6 eggs in the nests of conspecific neighbours (McRae & Burke, 1996). In a population of moorhens at Peakirk Waterfowl Gardens (Peterborough, UK), at least 27% of nesting females laid one or more eggs in a neighbour's nest and parasitized pairs produced fewer own chicks than their non-parasitized counterparts (McRae, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase of clutch size triggers clutch destruction behaviour in common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) during the incubation period

Wang

Yang

Hsu

et al. 2013

Behav

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Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is common in a variety of animal taxa, including birds. In coots (Fulica spp.), and the closely related moorhens (Gallinula spp.), such parasitism is especially common, and hosts experience considerable costs through increased chick competition soon after hatching. Hence, these birds have evolved egg recognition and rejection abilities, e.g., egg counting, burying the foreign eggs, assigning them suboptimal positions within the mixed clutch, or deserting parasitized clutches. For common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) it has been shown that desertion of parasitized nests pays most at the early egg laying stage. Later on, the costs of desertion exceed the costs of brood parasitism and acceptance is favoured. Here we tested moorhen egg discrimination behaviour during the incubation stage when acceptance of foreign eggs is expected. Four treatments were applied: (1) single added non-mimetic pale blue egg, (2) single added non-mimetic white chicken egg, (3) four foreign conspecific eggs added to the clutch and (4) four foreign conspecific eggs exchanged for four host eggs. Moorhens responded by egg destruction (48%) only to the increased clutch size but not to foreign egg colour and size match. In three nests where egg destruction occurred, all the eggs in the mixed clutch were destroyed by pecking, in two other nests one of the foreign eggs were pecked, while other two were deserted. These results are puzzling since moorhens have been shown to possess refined egg recognition abilities. To our knowledge, such destruction of parasitized clutches by moorhens during incubation has not previ- ously been reported. We suggest that after clutch completion, moorhens use increase in clutch size as a cue to determine if they have been parasitized, and some individuals choose to reject parasitic eggs by deserting or destroying the whole clutch.

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“…Our model can apply to two contexts: first, species that show both CBP and cooperative breeding, and second, understanding macroevolutionary patterns in terms of whether CBP or cooperative breeding is favored as a fixed strategy within a species. Examples of species that include both CBP and cooperative breeding include white-fronted bee-eaters (Merops bullockoides; Emlen and Wrege 1988), anis (Vehrencamp 1978;Riehl 2010), magpie geese (Anseranas semipalmata; Whitehead and Tschirner 1991), and common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus; McRae and Burke 1996). The model we present is also highly relevant for several families of birds where both tactics co-occur (such as ratites, waterfowl, rails, starlings, weavers, and woodpeckers; Lyon and Eadie 2008); here, our model provides insights into understanding within-clade patterns of expression of the two alternative tactics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Conspecific Brood Parasitism versus Cooperative Breeding as Alternative Reproductive Tactics

Zink

Lyon²

2016

The American Naturalist

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Cooperative breeding and conspecific brood parasitism can both be favored by ecological saturation of breeding territories or nest sites. Here, we develop a model that links these alternative reproductive tactics by focusing on nonnesting females (S) that either breed cooperatively with a nesting female (N) or parasitize a third, outside host female (H). We find that cooperative breeding is more likely to evolve with increasing relatedness of cooperating females (S or N) to the outside host female (H) and with increasing costs to the hosts for receiving parasitic eggs. Conversely, cooperation is less likely with increasing kinship between the two potentially cooperative nesters (S and N ). This is because even the nesting female gains higher inclusive fitness as long as the number of parasitic eggs (of her otherwise potentially cooperating partner) is sufficiently high. We find the relationship between kinship and reproductive skew within cooperative nests can be either positive or negative depending on the fecundity of parasites versus nesting females. We also find that either of the cooperatively nesting females is more likely to tolerate a smaller fraction of group reproduction as kinship with the host female increases and as the host reproduces more (relative to the parasite) in outside nests. Finally, our model predicts that, as the outside option of conspecific brood parasitism becomes more profitable, helping behavior (zero reproduction by one female) is less likely to evolve in cooperatively breeding groups.

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Intraspecific brood parasitism in the moorhen: parentage and parasite-host relationships determined by DNA fingerprinting

Cited by 126 publications

References 43 publications

Paternity-Parasitism Trade-Offs: A Model and Test of Host-Parasite Cooperation in an Avian Conspecific Brood Parasite

Paternity-Parasitism Trade-Offs: A Model and Test of Host-Parasite Cooperation in an Avian Conspecific Brood Parasite

Increase of clutch size triggers clutch destruction behaviour in common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) during the incubation period

Evolution of Conspecific Brood Parasitism versus Cooperative Breeding as Alternative Reproductive Tactics

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