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Forbes S, Glassey B, Wiebe M. Asymmetric sibling rivalry extends to hosts and brood parasites. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03137-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Rojas Ripari JM, Ursino CA, Reboreda JC, De Mársico MC. Tricking Parents: A Review of Mechanisms and Signals of Host Manipulation by Brood-Parasitic Young. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.725792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Obligate avian brood parasites depend entirely on heterospecific hosts for rearing their offspring. From hatching until independence, the young parasites must deal with the challenge of obtaining sufficient parental care from foster parents that are attuned to provisioning their own offspring. Parent-offspring communication is mediated by complex begging displays in which nestlings and fledglings exhibit visual (e.g., gaping and postures) and vocal (e.g., begging calls) traits that serve as signals to parents to adjust and allocate parental effort. Parasites can manipulate host parental behavior by exploiting these stable parent-offspring communication systems in their favor. During the past 30 years, the study of host exploitation by parasitic chicks has yielded important insights into the function and evolution of manipulative signals in brood parasites. However, despite these major advances, there are still important gaps in our knowledge about how parasitic nestling and fledglings tune into the host’s communication channels and the adaptive value of the visual and acoustic signals they exhibit. Here we review the literature pertaining to host manipulation by parasitic young, focusing on four non-mutually exclusive mechanisms (i.e., host chick mimicry, begging exaggeration, host-attuned begging calls, and sensory exploitation) and the function and evolution of the signals involved, with the aim to summarize and discuss putative adaptations for stimulating parental feeding and escaping host discrimination. Finally, we bring some concluding remarks and suggest directions for future research on the ways in which brood parasites adapt to the communication systems of other birds to exploit the necessary parental care.
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Scharf HM, Hauber ME, Mommer BC, Hoover JP, Schelsky WM. The effect of avian brood parasitism on physiological responses of host nestlings. Oecologia 2021; 195:861-872. [PMID: 33709254 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-04888-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2020] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Avian obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species that may provide care for the foreign offspring. Brood parasitism often imparts substantial fitness losses upon host nestlings when they are raised alongside the typically more competitive, larger, and older parasitic chick(s). Whereas fitness costs due to reduced host offspring survival in parasitized broods have been studied in detail, the physiological changes in host nestlings caused by parasitic nestmate(s) are less well known. We compared prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) nestlings, a host of the nest-sharing brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), in experimentally parasitized vs. non-parasitized broods. Our aim was to determine whether cohabitation with brood parasitic young impacted host nestling baseline corticosterone plasma concentrations, immune responses, body condition, and mortality. Corticosterone levels and body condition of host nestlings were similar between nests with or without a cowbird nestmate, whereas host immune responses were lower and nestling mortality was greater in parasitized broods, irrespective of variation in brood size or total brood mass. We detected no trade-offs of baseline corticosterone levels with either immune responses or with body condition. These results suggest that this host species' nestlings experience some adverse fitness-relevant physiological effects in parasitized broods, but are also resilient in other aspects when coping with brood parasitism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M Scharf
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
| | - Mark E Hauber
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.,Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
| | - Brett C Mommer
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.,Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Jeffrey P Hoover
- Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
| | - Wendy M Schelsky
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.,Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
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Winnicki S, Strausberger B, Antonson N, Burhans D, Lock J, Kilpatrick A, Hauber M. Developmental asynchrony and host species identity predict variability in nestling growth of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the “growth-tuning” hypothesis. CAN J ZOOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2020-0147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Generalist obligate brood parasites are excellent models for studies of developmental plasticity, as they experience a range of social and environmental variation when raised by one of their many hosts. Parasitic Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater (Boddaert, 1783)) exhibit host-specific growth rates, yet Cowbird growth rates are not predicted by hosts’ incubation or brooding periods. We tested the novel “growth-tuning” hypothesis which predicts that total asynchrony between Cowbirds’ and hosts’ nesting periods results in faster parasitic growth in nests where host young fledge earlier than Cowbirds. We tested this prediction using previously published and newly added nestling mass data across diverse host species. Total nesting period asynchrony (summed across incubation and brooding stages) predicted Cowbird growth; 8-day-old Cowbirds were heavier in host nests with relatively shorter nesting periods. We further explored the drivers of variation in growth using mass measurements of Cowbirds in Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia (A. Wilson, 1810)) and Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766)) nests. Our top models included host species (Cowbirds grew faster in Sparrow nests), numbers of nestmates (slowest when raised alone), and sex (males grew faster). These results confirm that multiple social and environmental factors predict directional patterns of developmental plasticity in avian generalist brood parasites.
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Affiliation(s)
- S.K. Winnicki
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 278 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - B.M. Strausberger
- Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA
| | - N.D. Antonson
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - D.E. Burhans
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, 110 Tucker Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | - J. Lock
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, 7 Symonds Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
| | - A.M. Kilpatrick
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - M.E. Hauber
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 278 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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Li D, Hauber ME. Parasitic begging calls of nestmate-evictor common cuckoos stimulate more parental provisions by red-winged blackbirds than calls of nest-sharing brown-headed cowbirds. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02955-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
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6
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Size matters: shiny cowbirds secure more food than host nestmates thanks to their larger size, not signal exaggeration. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Peer BD, McCleery RA, Jensen WE. Resistance is futile: prohibitive costs of egg ejection in an obligate avian brood parasite host. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Guigueno MF, MacDougall-Shackleton SA, Sherry DF. Sex and seasonal differences in hippocampal volume and neurogenesis in brood-parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Dev Neurobiol 2016; 76:1275-1290. [PMID: 27455512 DOI: 10.1002/dneu.22421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2015] [Revised: 07/14/2016] [Accepted: 07/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are one of few species in which females show more complex space use than males. Female cowbirds search for, revisit, and parasitize host nests and, in a previous study, outperformed males on an open field spatial search task. Previous research reported a female-biased sex difference in the volume of the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in spatial memory. Neurons produced by adult neurogenesis may be involved in the formation of new memories and replace older neurons that could cause interference in memory. We tested for sex and seasonal differences in hippocampal volume and neurogenesis of brood-parasitic brown-headed cowbirds and the closely related non-brood-parasitic red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) to determine whether there were differences in the hippocampus that reflected space use in the wild. Females had a larger hippocampus than males in both species, but hippocampal neurogenesis, measured by doublecortin immunoreactivity (DCX+), was greater in female than in male cowbirds in the absence of any sex difference in blackbirds, supporting the hypothesis of hippocampal specialization in female cowbirds. Cowbirds of both sexes had a larger hippocampus with greater hippocampal DCX+ than blackbirds. Hippocampus volume remained stable between breeding conditions, but DCX+ was greater post-breeding, indicating that old memories may be lost through hippocampal reorganization following breeding. Our results support, in part, the hypothesis that the hippocampus of cowbirds is specialized for brood parasitism. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 1275-1290, 2016.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mélanie F Guigueno
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. .,Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Scott A MacDougall-Shackleton
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - David F Sherry
- Advanced Facility for Avian Research, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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Rivers JW, Blundell MA, Rothstein SI. Mismatched begging displays between foreign and host offspring reduce brood parasite fitness. Behav Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/aru055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
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