1
|
Jones TM, Di Giovanni AJ, Hauber ME, Ward MP. Ontogenetic effects of brood parasitism by the Brown-headed Cowbird on host offspring. Ecology 2023; 104:e3925. [PMID: 36423935 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2022] [Revised: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Nest-sharer avian brood parasites do not evict or otherwise kill host chicks, but instead inflict a range of negative effects on their nestmates that are mediated by interactions between the parasite and host life history traits. Although many of the negative fitness effects of avian brood parasitism are well documented across diverse host species, there remains a paucity of studies that have examined the impacts of parasitism across the entirety of host ontogeny (i.e., from when an egg is laid until independence). More specifically, few studies have examined the impact of brood parasitism on the pre- and post-fledging development, physiology, behavior, and survival of host offspring. To help fill this knowledge gap, we assessed the effects of brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) across the ontogeny (incubation, nestling, and post-fledging period) of nine sympatrically breeding host species in central Illinois, USA; due to sample sizes, impacts on the post-fledging period were only examined in two of the nine species. Specifically, we examined the impact of brood parasitism on ontogenetic markers including the embryonic heart rate, hatching rate, nestling period length, nest survival, and offspring growth and development. Additionally, in species in which we found negative impacts of cowbird parasitism on host nestmate ontogeny, we examined whether the difference in adult size between parasites and their hosts and their hatching asynchrony positively predicted variation in host costs across these focal taxa. We found that costs of cowbird parasitism were most severe during early nesting stages (reduction in the host clutch or brood size) and were predicted negatively by host size and positively by incubation length. In contrast, we only found limited costs of cowbird parasitism on other stages of host ontogeny; critically, post-fledging survival did not differ between host offspring that fledged alongside cowbirds and those that did not. Our findings (i) highlight the direct costs of cowbird parasitism on host fitness, (ii) provide evidence for when (the stage) those costs are manifested, and (iii) may help to explain why many anti-cowbird defenses of hosts have evolved for protection from parasitism during the laying and incubation stages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Todd M Jones
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA.,Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA.,Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Alexander J Di Giovanni
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
| | - Mark E Hauber
- Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA.,Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
| | - Michael P Ward
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA.,Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Attisano A, Gill BJ, Anderson MG, Gula R, Langmore NE, Okahisa Y, Sato NJ, Tanaka KD, Thorogood R, Ueda K, Theuerkauf J. Polymorphism at the nestling stage and host-specific mimicry in an Australasian cuckoo-host arms race. J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:30-43. [PMID: 36426636 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Decades of research have shown that the coevolutionary arms race between avian brood parasites and their hosts can promote phenotypic diversification in hosts and brood parasites. However, relatively little is known about the role of brood parasitism in promoting phenotypic diversification of nestlings. We review field data collected over four decades in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand to assess potential for coevolutionary interactions between the shining bronze-cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus) and its hosts, and how diversification at the nestling stage may be generating different subspecies. The shining bronze-cuckoo is a specialist parasite of a few hosts in the family Acanthizidae. It has diversified into subspecies, of which the nestlings closely mimic the respective host nestlings in each region. Additionally, some cuckoo subspecies have polymorphic nestlings. The Acanthizidae hosts have similar breeding and nesting habits and only moderately effective frontline defences against parasitism at cuckoo egg laying or at the egg stages. However, some hosts have developed highly effective defences at the nestling stage by recognising and ejecting cuckoo nestlings from the nest. As with the cuckoo nestlings, some hosts have polymorphic nestlings. The coevolutionary interactions in each region suggest different evolutionary stages of the arms race in which either the parasite or the host is currently in the lead. The presence of moderately effective defences at the egg laying and egg stages might explain why some hosts do not have defences at the nestling stage. The south-Pacific cuckoo - host systems are excellent models to explore the evolutionary mechanisms driving the diversification at the nestling stage in the coevolutionary arms race between avian brood parasites and their hosts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alfredo Attisano
- Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Brian J Gill
- Auckland Museum (retired), Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Michael G Anderson
- School of Natural Sciences, Auckland Campus, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Roman Gula
- Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Naomi E Langmore
- Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | | | | | | | - Rose Thorogood
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,HiLIFE Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Research programme in Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Jörn Theuerkauf
- Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Host community-wide patterns of post-fledging behavior and survival of obligate brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds. Oecologia 2022; 198:981-993. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-022-05167-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
|
4
|
Cognition and reproductive success in cowbirds. Learn Behav 2021; 50:178-188. [PMID: 34918202 PMCID: PMC8979880 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-021-00506-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the relationships between cognitive abilities and fitness is integral to an evolutionary study of brain and behavior. However, these relationships are often difficult to measure and detect. Here we draw upon an opportunistic sample of brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) subjects that had two separate research experiences: First, they engaged in a large series of cognitive tests in David Sherry’s Lab in the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) at Western University, then subsequently moved to the Field Avian Research Megalab (FARM) at Wilfrid Laurier University where they lived in large breeding flocks in aviaries with other wild-caught cowbirds. Thus, we had extensive measures of cognitive abilities, breeding behavior, and reproductive success for these birds. We report here, for the fist time, the surprisingly strong connections we found among these different measures. Female cowbirds’ spatial cognitive abilities correlated positively with how intensely they were courted by males, and with their overall egg production. Males’ spatial cognition correlated positively with their ability to engage in singing contests (“countersinging”) with other males. In addition, a separate non-spatial cognitive ability correlated positively with the attractiveness of the songs they sung. In sum, these results suggest the cognitive skills assessed in the lab were strongly connected to breeding behavior and reproductive success. Moreover, since certain cognitive abilities related to different aspects of breeding success, it suggests that cognitive modules may have specialized adaptive value, but also that these specialized skills may interact and influence fitness in surprising ways.
Collapse
|
5
|
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.
Collapse
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
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Pollock HS, Hoover JP, Uy FMK, Hauber ME. Brood Parasites Are a Heterogeneous and Functionally Distinct Class of Natural Enemies. Trends Parasitol 2021; 37:588-596. [PMID: 33685784 DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2021.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 02/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Brood parasitism is the introduction of unrelated progeny into the nest or colony of a host that then raises the foreign young. This reproductive strategy has evolved independently and repeatedly among diverse animal taxa, and brood parasite-host interactions have become models for understanding coevolutionary arms races. Yet brood parasites have remained largely overlooked in previous syntheses of natural enemy ecology. Here, we argue that brood parasites are a heterogeneous and versatile class of natural enemies, blending traits characteristic of predators and trophic parasites. The functional distinctness of brood parasites reinforces the idea that natural enemies exist along a continuum rather than as a dichotomy. Brood parasite-host interactions can serve as valuable case studies to unify parasite-host and predator-prey theories.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Henry S Pollock
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
| | - Jeffrey P Hoover
- Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 615 E. Peabody Dr., MC-650, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
| | - Floria M K Uy
- Department of Biology, University of Rochester, 402 Hutchison Hall, P.O. Box 270211, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
| | - Mark E Hauber
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 615 E. Peabody Dr., MC-650, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Anderson HL, Perkes A, Gottfried JS, Davies HB, White DJ, Schmidt MF. Female signal jamming in a socially monogamous brood parasite. Anim Behav 2021; 172:155-169. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
|
8
|
Medina I, Kilner RM, Langmore NE. From micro- to macroevolution: brood parasitism as a driver of phenotypic diversity in birds. Curr Zool 2020; 66:515-526. [PMID: 33293930 PMCID: PMC7705515 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoaa033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 06/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
A fundamental question in biology is how diversity evolves and why some clades are more diverse than others. Phenotypic diversity has often been shown to result from morphological adaptation to different habitats. The role of behavioral interactions as a driver of broadscale phenotypic diversity has received comparatively less attention. Behavioral interactions, however, are a key agent of natural selection. Antagonistic behavioral interactions with predators or with parasites can have significant fitness consequences, and hence act as strong evolutionary forces on the phenotype of species, ultimately generating diversity between species of both victims and exploiters. Avian obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species, their hosts, and this behavioral interaction between hosts and parasites is often considered one of the best examples of coevolution in the natural world. In this review, we use the coevolution between brood parasites and their hosts to illustrate the potential of behavioral interactions to drive evolution of phenotypic diversity at different taxonomic scales. We provide a bridge between behavioral ecology and macroevolution by describing how this interaction has increased avian phenotypic diversity not only in the brood parasitic clades but also in their hosts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Iliana Medina
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
| | - Rebecca M Kilner
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Naomi E Langmore
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
| |
Collapse
|