Cargando…

Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts

Hole-nesting tits Parus spp. have been classified as “unsuitable” hosts for cuckoo parasitism because cuckoos cannot enter a cavity if the entrance is too small. However, Chinese tits could reject alien eggs and egg ejection rate increased with the local diversity of parasitic cuckoo species. Antipa...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yu, Jiangping, E, Mingju, Sun, Wei, Liang, Wei, Wang, Haitao, Møller, Anders Pape
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7234197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32440285
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz049
_version_ 1783535709578067968
author Yu, Jiangping
E, Mingju
Sun, Wei
Liang, Wei
Wang, Haitao
Møller, Anders Pape
author_facet Yu, Jiangping
E, Mingju
Sun, Wei
Liang, Wei
Wang, Haitao
Møller, Anders Pape
author_sort Yu, Jiangping
collection PubMed
description Hole-nesting tits Parus spp. have been classified as “unsuitable” hosts for cuckoo parasitism because cuckoos cannot enter a cavity if the entrance is too small. However, Chinese tits could reject alien eggs and egg ejection rate increased with the local diversity of parasitic cuckoo species. Antiparasitic behavior among Chinese tits may have evolved due to greater size variation among sympatric cuckoo species. This raises the question of whether differently sized parasitic cuckoos pose different threats to Chinese tits. A green-backed tit Parus monticolus population that is sympatric with Asian emerald cuckoo Chrysococcyx maculatus (eme-cuckoo, small-sized parasite) and common cuckoo Cuculus canorus (com-cuckoo, large-sized parasite), and a cinereous tit P. cinereus population that is only sympatric with com-cuckoo were chosen as study organisms. We observed behavioral response and recorded alarm calls of the 2 tit species to eme-cuckoo, com-cuckoo, chipmunk Tamias sibiricus (a nest predator) and dove Streptopelia orientalis (a harmless control), and subsequently played back alarm calls to conspecific incubating females. In dummy experiments, both tit species performed intense response behavior to chipmunk, but rarely responded strongly to the 3 avian species. In playback experiments, both tit species responded strongly to conspecific chipmunk alarm calls, but rarely responded to dove alarm calls. The intensity of response of incubating female green-backed tits to eme-cuckoo and com-cuckoo alarm calls were similar to that of chipmunk alarm calls, while the intensity to eme-cuckoo alarm calls was higher than the intensity to dove alarm calls which was similar to that of com-cuckoo alarm calls. In contrast, few female cinereous tits responded to eme-cuckoo and com-cuckoo alarm calls. These findings indicated that the threat level of eme-cuckoo was slightly greater than that of com-cuckoo for sympatric green-backed tits, but not for allopatric cinereous tits.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7234197
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-72341972020-05-21 Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts Yu, Jiangping E, Mingju Sun, Wei Liang, Wei Wang, Haitao Møller, Anders Pape Curr Zool Articles Hole-nesting tits Parus spp. have been classified as “unsuitable” hosts for cuckoo parasitism because cuckoos cannot enter a cavity if the entrance is too small. However, Chinese tits could reject alien eggs and egg ejection rate increased with the local diversity of parasitic cuckoo species. Antiparasitic behavior among Chinese tits may have evolved due to greater size variation among sympatric cuckoo species. This raises the question of whether differently sized parasitic cuckoos pose different threats to Chinese tits. A green-backed tit Parus monticolus population that is sympatric with Asian emerald cuckoo Chrysococcyx maculatus (eme-cuckoo, small-sized parasite) and common cuckoo Cuculus canorus (com-cuckoo, large-sized parasite), and a cinereous tit P. cinereus population that is only sympatric with com-cuckoo were chosen as study organisms. We observed behavioral response and recorded alarm calls of the 2 tit species to eme-cuckoo, com-cuckoo, chipmunk Tamias sibiricus (a nest predator) and dove Streptopelia orientalis (a harmless control), and subsequently played back alarm calls to conspecific incubating females. In dummy experiments, both tit species performed intense response behavior to chipmunk, but rarely responded strongly to the 3 avian species. In playback experiments, both tit species responded strongly to conspecific chipmunk alarm calls, but rarely responded to dove alarm calls. The intensity of response of incubating female green-backed tits to eme-cuckoo and com-cuckoo alarm calls were similar to that of chipmunk alarm calls, while the intensity to eme-cuckoo alarm calls was higher than the intensity to dove alarm calls which was similar to that of com-cuckoo alarm calls. In contrast, few female cinereous tits responded to eme-cuckoo and com-cuckoo alarm calls. These findings indicated that the threat level of eme-cuckoo was slightly greater than that of com-cuckoo for sympatric green-backed tits, but not for allopatric cinereous tits. Oxford University Press 2020-06 2019-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7234197/ /pubmed/32440285 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz049 Text en © The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Editorial Office, Current Zoology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Articles
Yu, Jiangping
E, Mingju
Sun, Wei
Liang, Wei
Wang, Haitao
Møller, Anders Pape
Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title_full Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title_fullStr Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title_full_unstemmed Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title_short Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
title_sort differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7234197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32440285
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz049
work_keys_str_mv AT yujiangping differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts
AT emingju differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts
AT sunwei differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts
AT liangwei differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts
AT wanghaitao differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts
AT mølleranderspape differentlysizedcuckoosposedifferentthreatstohosts