Sexual imprinting and the origin of obligate brood parasitism in birds

The American Naturalist
T Slagsvold, Bo T Hansen

Abstract

We discuss two pathways along which obligate brood parasitism (OBP) may evolve and examine some of the critical steps that must be passed by letting great tits Parus major be reared by blue tits Parus caeruleus in a field experiment. The cross-fostered chicks survived well in blue tit nests, but their local recruitment and reproductive success was much lower than that of controls. The effect was strongest when great tits grew up with siblings of the host species rather than with conspecific siblings in blue tit nests. The low success seemed to be caused by misimprinting because the cross-fostered birds behaved like blue tits in several aspects (species association, alarm calls, and aggressive response by resident females to caged intruders). Some birds of both sexes were apparently so strongly imprinted that they did not attract or accept a social mate of their own species. We conclude that imprinting may be necessary for OBP to evolve in birds because the parasite must be attracted to the nests of the host species to add eggs and thereby continue the parasitic life cycle. However, strong imprinting may also prevent OBP from occurring if parasitic offspring seek a mate from the host species.

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Citations

Oct 4, 2006·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Tore Slagsvold, Karen L Wiebe
May 21, 2010·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Michael D SorensonScott R Derrickson
Mar 2, 2011·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Tore Slagsvold, Karen L Wiebe
Jun 19, 2012·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Machteld N VerzijdenErik I Svensson
May 21, 2009·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·R C Shaw, M E Hauber
Apr 21, 2016·Neuroscience Letters·Matthew I M LouderMark E Hauber
Apr 20, 2017·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Kathleen S LynchMark E Hauber
Nov 13, 2004·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·N B DaviesS H M Butchart
Jul 26, 2002·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Tore SlagsvoldJan T Lifjeld
Sep 7, 2021·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Kathleen S Lynch

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