Title |
Host responses to interspecific brood parasitism: a by-product of adaptations to conspecific parasitism?
|
---|---|
Published in |
Frontiers in Zoology, April 2014
|
DOI | 10.1186/1742-9994-11-34 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Peter Samas, Mark E Hauber, Phillip Cassey, Tomas Grim |
Abstract |
Why have birds evolved the ability to reject eggs? Typically, foreign egg discrimination is interpreted as evidence that interspecific brood parasitism (IP) has selected for the host's ability to recognize and eliminate foreign eggs. Fewer studies explore the alternative hypothesis that rejection of interspecific eggs is a by-product of host defenses, evolved against conspecific parasitism (CP). We performed a large scale study with replication across taxa (two congeneric Turdus thrushes), space (populations), time (breeding seasons), and treatments (three types of experimental eggs), using a consistent design of egg rejection experiments (n = 1057 nests; including controls), in areas with potential IP either present (Europe; native populations) or absent (New Zealand; introduced populations). These comparisons benefited from the known length of allopatry (one and a half centuries), with no gene flow between native and introduced populations, which is rarely available in host-parasite systems. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 1 | 25% |
Hong Kong | 1 | 25% |
Unknown | 2 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 3 | 75% |
Scientists | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 32 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 9 | 27% |
Student > Master | 6 | 18% |
Researcher | 4 | 12% |
Student > Bachelor | 3 | 9% |
Professor | 2 | 6% |
Other | 4 | 12% |
Unknown | 5 | 15% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 21 | 64% |
Environmental Science | 1 | 3% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 1 | 3% |
Mathematics | 1 | 3% |
Psychology | 1 | 3% |
Other | 2 | 6% |
Unknown | 6 | 18% |