Brood parasitism disproportionately increases nest provisioning and helper recruitment in a cooperatively breeding bird |
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Authors: | Cynthia A Ursino María C De Mársico Mariela Sued Andrés Farall Juan C Reboreda |
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Institution: | 1.Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales,Universidad de Buenos Aires,Buenos Aires,Argentina;2.Instituto del Cálculo, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales,Universidad de Buenos Aires,Buenos Aires,Argentina;3.Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales,Universidad de Buenos Aires,Buenos Aires,Argentina |
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Abstract: | Obligate avian brood parasites lay their eggs in nests of other species (hosts), which raise parasitic young. Parasitic nestlings
are likely to influence host’s parental behaviours as they typically beg for food more vigorously than young host for a given
hunger level. However, few studies have tested this idea, with conflicting results. These prior studies were largely limited
to biparental hosts, but little is known about the effect of brood parasitism on parental behaviours in hosts that breed cooperatively.
We followed a multimodel approach to examine the effect of brood parasitism on nest provisioning and helper recruitment in
the baywing (Agelaioides badius), a cooperative breeder parasitised by screaming (Molothrus rufoaxillaris) and shiny (Molothrus bonariensis) cowbirds. Multimodel inference results indicated that feeding visits increased with nestling age, cooperative group size
and number of cowbird nestlings in the brood. Brood size had little influence on feeding visits, which further suggests that
baywings adjusted their provisioning effort in response to cowbird parasitism. In addition, nests parasitised artificially
with shiny cowbird eggs or hatchlings recruited more helpers than unmanipulated nests having only host or screaming cowbird
young. Our results provide novel evidence that brood parasitism and cooperative breeding interact in determining the levels
of nest provisioning. |
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