IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0135624.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Could a Factor That Does Not Affect Egg Recognition Influence the Decision of Rejection?

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Ruiz-Raya
  • Manuel Soler
  • Lucía Ll Sánchez-Pérez
  • Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo

Abstract

Rejection of the parasitic egg is the most important defence of hosts against brood parasites. However, this response is variable among and within species, and egg discrimination is not always followed by egg rejection. Low risk of parasitism and high risk of rejection costs may lead to the acceptance of the parasitic egg even if it has been previously recognized. The main aim of this paper is to answer a relevant question: can a single egg trait provoke the acceptance of an experimental egg previously recognized as foreign? Increased egg mass should hamper the ejection of an egg that has been discriminated because ejection of a heavy egg may imply higher rejection costs for hosts. We have tested this prediction by experimentally parasitizing natural nests of Common Blackbirds (Turdus merula) with non-mimetic model eggs of different mass (heavy, normal-weight, and light) while controlling for potential confounding factors such as egg size and colour. Our results showed that blackbirds more frequently accepted heavy eggs, even when previously recognized. This differential acceptance may be related to insufficient motivation to assume the higher costs that the ejection of a heavy egg could impose.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Ruiz-Raya & Manuel Soler & Lucía Ll Sánchez-Pérez & Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo, 2015. "Could a Factor That Does Not Affect Egg Recognition Influence the Decision of Rejection?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-10, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0135624
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135624
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135624
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135624&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0135624?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bård G. Stokke & Inge Hafstad & Geir Rudolfsen & Arne Moksnes & Anders Pape Møller & Eivin Røskaft & Manuel Soler, 2008. "Predictors of resistance to brood parasitism within and among reed warbler populations," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 19(3), pages 612-620.
    2. N.E. Langmore & R.M. Kilner & S.H.M. Butchart & G. Maurer & N.B. Davies & A. Cockburn & N.A. Macgregor & A. Peters & M.J.L. Magrath & D.K. Dowling, 2005. "The evolution of egg rejection by cuckoo hosts in Australia and Europe," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 16(4), pages 686-692, July.
    3. Bruce E. Lyon, 2003. "Egg recognition and counting reduce costs of avian conspecific brood parasitism," Nature, Nature, vol. 422(6931), pages 495-499, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William E. Feeney & Mary Caswell Stoddard & Rebecca M. Kilner & Naomi E. Langmore, 2014. ""Jack-of-all-trades" egg mimicry in the brood parasitic Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 25(6), pages 1365-1373.
    2. Markus Öst & Kim Jaatinen, 2015. "Smart and safe? Antipredator behavior and breeding success are related to head size in a wild bird," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(5), pages 1371-1378.
    3. Wei Liang & Canchao Yang & Anton Antonov & Frode Fossøy & Bård G. Stokke & Arne Moksnes & Eivin Røskaft & Jacqui A. Shykoff & Anders P. Møller & Fugo Takasu, 2012. "Sex roles in egg recognition and egg polymorphism in avian brood parasitism," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(2), pages 397-402.
    4. Miklós Bán & Csaba Moskát & Zoltán Barta & Márk E. Hauber, 2013. "Simultaneous viewing of own and parasitic eggs is not required for egg rejection by a cuckoo host," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(4), pages 1014-1021.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0135624. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.