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Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos

Female-only colour polymorphism is rare in birds, but occurs in brood parasitic cuckoos (Cuculidae). Obligate brood parasites leave incubation and parental care to other species (hosts), so female-female interactions can play a role in how parasites guard critical resources (host nests) within their...

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Autores principales: Moskát, Csaba, Hauber, Márk E., Růžičková, Jana, Marton, Attila, Bán, Miklós, Elek, Zoltán
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32564143
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01680-3
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author Moskát, Csaba
Hauber, Márk E.
Růžičková, Jana
Marton, Attila
Bán, Miklós
Elek, Zoltán
author_facet Moskát, Csaba
Hauber, Márk E.
Růžičková, Jana
Marton, Attila
Bán, Miklós
Elek, Zoltán
author_sort Moskát, Csaba
collection PubMed
description Female-only colour polymorphism is rare in birds, but occurs in brood parasitic cuckoos (Cuculidae). Obligate brood parasites leave incubation and parental care to other species (hosts), so female-female interactions can play a role in how parasites guard critical resources (host nests) within their laying areas. The plumage of adult female common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) is either rufous (typically rare) or grey (common), whereas adult male conspecifics are monochromatic (grey). In previous studies, hosts and conspecific males responded with less intensity toward the rare female morph in support of a negative frequency-dependent benefit of female plumage polychromatism. Here, we assessed responses of both conspecific females and males to vocal playbacks of female calls, coupled with one of two 3D models of the different morphs of female cuckoos. At our study population, the rufous female morph was as common as the grey morph; therefore, we predicted similarly high rates of conspecific responses in both treatments. Both female and male cuckoos responded to playbacks acoustically, which demonstrated the primary role of acoustic communication in social interactions amongst cuckoos. Following this, some cuckoos flew closer to the models to inspect them visually. As predicted, no significant differences were detected between the live cuckoos’ responses toward the two colour morphs in this population. We conclude that dichromatism in female cuckoos evolved to serve one or more functions other than conspecific signalling.
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spelling pubmed-73060362020-06-22 Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos Moskát, Csaba Hauber, Márk E. Růžičková, Jana Marton, Attila Bán, Miklós Elek, Zoltán Naturwissenschaften Original Paper Female-only colour polymorphism is rare in birds, but occurs in brood parasitic cuckoos (Cuculidae). Obligate brood parasites leave incubation and parental care to other species (hosts), so female-female interactions can play a role in how parasites guard critical resources (host nests) within their laying areas. The plumage of adult female common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) is either rufous (typically rare) or grey (common), whereas adult male conspecifics are monochromatic (grey). In previous studies, hosts and conspecific males responded with less intensity toward the rare female morph in support of a negative frequency-dependent benefit of female plumage polychromatism. Here, we assessed responses of both conspecific females and males to vocal playbacks of female calls, coupled with one of two 3D models of the different morphs of female cuckoos. At our study population, the rufous female morph was as common as the grey morph; therefore, we predicted similarly high rates of conspecific responses in both treatments. Both female and male cuckoos responded to playbacks acoustically, which demonstrated the primary role of acoustic communication in social interactions amongst cuckoos. Following this, some cuckoos flew closer to the models to inspect them visually. As predicted, no significant differences were detected between the live cuckoos’ responses toward the two colour morphs in this population. We conclude that dichromatism in female cuckoos evolved to serve one or more functions other than conspecific signalling. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-06-20 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7306036/ /pubmed/32564143 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01680-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Moskát, Csaba
Hauber, Márk E.
Růžičková, Jana
Marton, Attila
Bán, Miklós
Elek, Zoltán
Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title_full Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title_fullStr Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title_full_unstemmed Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title_short Female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
title_sort female-female aggression and male responses to the two colour morphs of female common cuckoos
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32564143
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01680-3
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