egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite蛋驱逐强加的毒性可收回成本的小鸡孵寄生虫.pdfVIP

Egg Eviction Imposes a Recoverable Cost of Virulence in Chicks of a Brood Parasite 1 ´ 2 ´ ´ 3 ´ ˇ 4 5 6 Michael G. Anderson , Csaba Moskat , Miklos Ban , Tomas Grim , Phillip Cassey , Mark E. Hauber * 1 Ecology and Conservation Group, Institute of Natural Science, Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland, New Zealand, 2 Animal Ecology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 3 Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary, 4 Department of Zoology and Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 5 Centre for Ornithology, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, United Kingdom, 6 Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, United States of America Abstract Background: Chicks of virulent brood parasitic birds eliminate their nestmates and avoid costly competition for foster parental care. Yet, efforts to evict nest contents by the blind and naked common cuckoo Cuculus canorus hatchling are counterintuitive as both adult parasites and large older cuckoo chicks appear to be better suited to tossing the eggs and young of the foster parents. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we show experimentally that egg tossing imposed a recoverable growth cost of mass gain in common cuckoo chicks during the nestling period in nests of great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus hosts. Growth rates of skeletal traits and morphological variables involved in the solicitation of foster parental care remained similar between evictor and non-evictor chicks througho