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Malaria parasites, immune challenge, MHC variability, and predator avoidance in a passerine bird

Author

Listed:
  • László Zsolt Garamszegi
  • Magdalena Zagalska-Neubauer
  • David Canal
  • Gábor Markó
  • Eszter Szász
  • Sándor Zsebők
  • Eszter Szöllősi
  • Gábor Herczeg
  • János Török

Abstract

Several hypotheses predict a relationship between parasite burden and risk-taking behavior, but the underlying causal mechanisms are poorly understood due to the scarcity of experimental studies and the neglected focus on immune defense. Here, in 3 sets of field studies on the collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis, we investigated how among-male variation in flight initiation distance (FID, the distance at which an individual flee a potential predator) is linked to among-male variation in health status. First, we correlatively assessed the relationship between FID and the prevalence of haemosporidian blood parasites. We found no difference in risk-taking behavior between parasitized and nonparasitized individuals rejecting a hypothesis that predicts that malaria infection status affects the costs of predator avoidance. Second, we performed an immune challenge experiment, in which randomly chosen birds were injected with a novel antigen (sheep red blood cell) and their change in FID was compared with birds that received a placebo treatment. This experiment revealed no evidence for the immunological treatment affecting risk-taking behavior, thus we failed to obtain support for the hypothesis that posits that immediate health status mediates decisions about when to flee a predator. Finally, we detected a negative relationship between the number of alleles of the major histocompatibility complex and FID. This result, in concordance with the above negative results, supports the "avoidance" hypothesis that states that only individuals with efficient immune defense machinery are able to bear the costs of risk-taking that can emerge through the increased infection rates of risk-taker individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • László Zsolt Garamszegi & Magdalena Zagalska-Neubauer & David Canal & Gábor Markó & Eszter Szász & Sándor Zsebők & Eszter Szöllősi & Gábor Herczeg & János Török, 2015. "Malaria parasites, immune challenge, MHC variability, and predator avoidance in a passerine bird," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(5), pages 1292-1302.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:26:y:2015:i:5:p:1292-1302.
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ja´nos To¨ro¨k & Gergely Hegyi & La´szlo´ Zsolt Garamszegi, 2003. "Depigmented wing patch size is a condition-dependent indicator of viability in male collared flycatchers," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 14(3), pages 382-388, May.
    2. László Zsolt Garamszegi & Anders Pape Møller & János Török & Gábor Michl & Péter Péczely & Murielle Richard, 2004. "Immune challenge mediates vocal communication in a passerine bird: an experiment," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15(1), pages 148-157, January.
    3. Halekoh, Ulrich & Højsgaard, Søren, 2014. "A Kenward-Roger Approximation and Parametric Bootstrap Methods for Tests in Linear Mixed Models The R Package pbkrtest," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 59(i09).
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    5. C. Navarro & F. de Lope & A. Marzal & A. P. Møller, 2004. "Predation risk, host immune response, and parasitism," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15(4), pages 629-635, July.
    6. Max Wolf & G. Sander van Doorn & Olof Leimar & Franz J. Weissing, 2007. "Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities," Nature, Nature, vol. 447(7144), pages 581-584, May.
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