Chick parasitism by blowflies affects feeding rates in a Mediterranean population of blue tits |
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Authors: | Sylvie Hurtrez-Boussès Jacques Blondel Philippe Perret Jacques Fabreguettes & François Renaud Renaud |
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Institution: | Laboratoire de Parasitologie Comparée (CNRS, UMR 5555), Case 105, UniversitéMontpellier II, place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France.,;CEFE-CNRS 1919, Rte de Mende, 34293 Montpellier cedex 5, France. |
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Abstract: | Offspring fitness depends on interactions between parental care and environmental constraints. It has been suggested that in altricial birds parents are able to compensate for the detrimental effects of ectoparasites by improving food provisioning. We tested this prediction in a population of blue tits highly parasitized by blowfly larvae. The frequency of parental feeding visits was significantly higher in parasitized broods than in broods experimentally deparasitized. Despite a strong increase in parental care, chicks of parasitized broods were lighter, smaller, and more anaemic than chicks in deparasitized broods. Parents invest more in feeding parasitized young but cannot fully compensate for the negative effects of parasites, hence young are in poor condition at fledging. |
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Keywords: | Blowfly blue tit Corsica feeding rate parasitism |
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