The spatial habitat structure of host populations explains the pattern of rejection behavior in hosts and parasitic adaptations in cuckoos |
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Authors: | Roskaft Eivin; Moksnes Arne; Stokke Bard G; Moskat Csaba; Honza Marcel |
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Institution: | a
Department of Zoology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU,
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
b
Animal Ecology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, c/o
Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1083 Budapest, Ludovika ter 2,
Hungary
c
Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
Kvetná 8, 60365 Brno, Czech Republic |
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Abstract: | In this article we present tentative support for predictionsderived from a spatial habitat structure hypothesis arguingthat common cuckoos Cuculus canorus, the most common obligatebrood parasite in Europe, only breed in areas where they haveaccess to vantage points in trees. Thus, species in which somepopulations breed near trees while other populations breed farther
from trees have a different cuckoohost population dynamicthan species in which all populations always breed in the vicinityof trees. Parasitism rate, mimicry of brood parasite eggs withthose of the hosts, and rejection behavior of hosts varieswith the host breeding habitat. Cuckoos are best adapted toexploit species in which some populations breed near trees while
other populations breed in open areas because such hosts arenot always accessible to cuckoos, and thus gene flow amongunparasitized and parasitized populations delays the evolutionof host adaptations. Adaptive behavior in cuckoos as well asin their hosts can be predicted from the spatial habitat structurehypothesis. |
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Keywords: | brood parasitism cuckoos Cuculus canorus gene flow habitat structure host behavior metapopulation |
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