Egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite.

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorAnderson MG
dc.contributor.authorMoskát C
dc.contributor.authorBán M
dc.contributor.authorGrim T
dc.contributor.authorCassey P
dc.contributor.authorHauber ME
dc.date.accessioned2010-11-30T21:18:05Z
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-06T22:26:20Z
dc.date.availableNO_RESTRICTION
dc.date.available2010-11-30T21:18:05Z
dc.date.available2016-03-06T22:26:20Z
dc.date.issued2009-11-11
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND: Chicks of virulent brood parasitic birds eliminate their nestmates and avoid costly competition for foster parental care. Yet, efforts to evict nest contents by the blind and naked common cuckoo Cuculus canorus hatchling are counterintuitive as both adult parasites and large older cuckoo chicks appear to be better suited to tossing the eggs and young of the foster parents. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we show experimentally that egg tossing imposed a recoverable growth cost of mass gain in common cuckoo chicks during the nestling period in nests of great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus hosts. Growth rates of skeletal traits and morphological variables involved in the solicitation of foster parental care remained similar between evictor and non-evictor chicks throughout development. We also detected no increase in predation rates for evicting nests, suggesting that egg tossing behavior by common cuckoo hatchlings does not increase the conspicuousness of nests. CONCLUSION: The temporary growth cost of egg eviction by common cuckoo hatchlings is the result of constraints imposed by rejecter host adults and competitive nestmates on the timing and mechanism of parasite virulence.
dc.identifier.citationAnderson, M. G., Moskát, C., Bán, M., Grim, T., Cassey, P., & Hauber, M. E. (2009). Egg Eviction Imposes a Recoverable Cost of Virulence in Chicks of a Brood Parasite. Plos One, 4(11), A67-A73. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007725
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherPloS
dc.relation.isbasedonPLoS One
dc.relation.isformatofhttp://www.plosone.org
dc.relation.isformatofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007725
dc.rightsß 2009 Anderson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.subjectEgg eviction
dc.subjectChicks
dc.subjectBrood parasite
dc.subjectCommon cuckoo
dc.subjectBirds
dc.subjectCuculus canorus
dc.subject.otherFields of Research::270000 Biological Sciences::270500 Zoology::270599 Zoology not elsewhere classified
dc.titleEgg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite.
dc.typeJournal article
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
2009_Anderson.pdf
Size:
255.63 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Journal Articles