1
|
Nagy J, Fulmer AG, Löki V, Ruiz-Raya F, Hauber ME. Biogeographic history, egg colouration, and habitat selection in Turdus thrushes (Aves: Turdidae). Biol Futur 2023; 74:467-474. [PMID: 37919466 DOI: 10.1007/s42977-023-00191-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023]
Abstract
Despite broad interest and recent experimentation, there is no single ecological model accounting for the adaptive significance of the diversity of avian eggshell colouration. The often blue-green eggs of Turdus thrushes are a charismatic example of this, having long captured cultural and scientific attention. Although the biology and evolutionary history of "true" thrushes is well understood, little is known about correlated evolution between shifts in habitat and eggshell pigmentation, and how these shifts map with Turdus biogeography. We applied phylogenetic comparative methods to assess the evolutionary timing of divergence and variation of life history traits and eggshell colouration and maculation presence in the genus. We found that eggshell colour diversified independently on several occasions in the past 11 million years, with much of the variation occurring within the last 4 million years. The majority of Turdus species lay blue-green eggs and also tend to be sedentary and forest-dwelling. Diet generalist species and species which have transitioned to a forest habitat are more likely to lay white eggs (10% of studied species). In turn, lineages in any habitat were more likely to transition to blue-green eggs. We found that variation in egg colour is increased in some clades, of which two lineages radiated in South America and the East Palearctic, in the past 2-4 million years. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that white eggs are more conspicuous to predators in open environments and that multiple, non-mutually exclusive constraints operate on the adaptive function of avian eggshell colour.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jenő Nagy
- HUN-REN-UD Conservation Biology Research Group, Department of Botany, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., Debrecen, 4032, Hungary.
| | - Andrew G Fulmer
- Department of Psychology, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Dr, Durango, CO, 81301, USA
| | - Viktor Löki
- Wetland Ecology Research Group, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, IAE, Bem tér 18/C, Debrecen, 4026, Hungary
| | - Francisco Ruiz-Raya
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Mark E Hauber
- Advanced Science Research Center and Program in Psychology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 85 St. Nicholas Terrace, New York, NY, 10031, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Fulmer AG, Hauber ME. A review of the cues used for rejecting foreign eggs from the nest by the Eurasian blackbird (
Turdus merula
). Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8886. [PMID: 35571754 PMCID: PMC9077020 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Revised: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Avian brood parasitism is reproductively costly for hosts and selects for cognitive features enabling anti‐parasitic resistance at multiple stages of the host's breeding cycle. The true thrushes (genus Turdus) represent a nearly worldwide clade of potential hosts of brood parasitism by Cuculus cuckoos in Eurasia and Africa and Molothrus cowbirds in the Americas. The Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula) builds an open‐cup nest and is common within much of the common cuckoo's (C. canorus) breeding range. While this thrush is known to be parasitized at most only at low rates by this cuckoo, the species is also a strong rejector of nonmimetic foreign eggs in the nest. Given their open‐cup nesting habits, we predict that Eurasian blackbirds primarily use visual cues in making a distinction between own and parasitically or experimentally inserted foreign eggs in the nest. We then provide a comprehensive and quantitative review of the literature on blackbird egg rejection studies. This review corroborates that vision is the primary sensory modality used by blackbirds in assessing eggs, but also brings attention to some other, less commonly studied cues which appear to influence rejection, including predator exposure, individual experience, stage of clutch completion, and maternal hormonal state. Blackbirds are also able to recognize and eject even highly mimetic eggs (including those of conspecifics) at a moderate rate, apparently relying on many of the same sensory cues. Although the cues involved in foreign egg recognition by Eurasian blackbirds do not appear specialized to nonmimetic cuckoo parasitism, we cannot differentiate between the possibility of egg rejection being selected by mostly conspecific parasitism or by the evolutionary ghost of a now‐extinct, mimetic cuckoo host‐race.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew G. Fulmer
- Department of Psychology Fort Lewis College Durango Colorado USA
| | - Mark E. Hauber
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior School of Integrative Biology University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign Urbana Illinois USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Li Q, Bi J, Wu J, Yang C. Impact of nest sanitation behavior on hosts' egg rejection: an empirical study and meta-analyses. Curr Zool 2021; 67:683-690. [PMID: 34805546 PMCID: PMC8598993 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoab057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Egg rejection in birds is a specific adaptation toward avian brood parasitism, whereas nest sanitation is a general behavior for cleaning the nest and avoiding predation. However, both behaviors refer to the action of ejecting objects out of the nest, and nest sanitation has been proposed as a pre-adaptation for egg rejection. Here, we tested the eliciting effect of nest sanitation on egg rejection in the red-whiskered bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus, a potential host species that are sympatric with parasitic cuckoos. We conducted meta-analyses of previous studies on both nest sanitation and egg rejection, in order to evaluate the consistency of our conclusions. Our results showed that nest sanitation did not elicit egg rejection in P. jocosus. The conclusions concerning such an eliciting effect from previous studies were mixed, whereas the methodologies were inconsistent, making the studies unsuitable for comparisons. However, the ejection frequency of nest sanitation was consistently higher than the frequency of egg rejection across different host species or populations. These results suggest that nest sanitation, which is an ancient behavior, is more fundamental than egg rejection, but the effect of the former on the latter is complex and needs further study. Standardized methodologies and the integration of behavior, physiology, and modeling may provide better opportunities to explore the relationship between nest sanitation and egg rejection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Qihong Li
- College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China
| | - Jianli Bi
- College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China
| | - Jiangwen Wu
- College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China
| | - Canchao Yang
- College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Wang L, He G, Zhang Y, Ma J, Liang W. Cryptic eggs are rejected less frequently by a cuckoo host. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:1171-1177. [PMID: 33763752 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01507-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Obligate brood parasitism is associated with huge reproduction costs, forcing hosts to evolve various anti-parasitic strategies against brood parasites, among which egg recognition and rejection is the most effective defense strategy. According to the crypsis hypothesis, non-mimetic yet cryptic eggs in a nest can also deceive their hosts and eventually be accepted. To validate this hypothesis, we conducted field experiments on Oriental reed warblers (Acrocephalus orientalis), a common host for common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus). We firstly tested the egg recognition and rejection abilities of Oriental reed warblers, using black and white model eggs in natural nests. Then we designed a comparison test where the cryptic effects of the two groups of experimental eggs were different. We manipulated the nest lining color and added relatively cryptic and bright model eggs to test warblers' rejection behaviors against cryptic and bright foreign eggs. The results showed that warblers have strong egg recognition and rejection abilities. There is a significant tendency for warblers to prefer to peck and reject relatively distinguishable foreign eggs, which supports the crypsis hypothesis. These findings indicate that even in the host-parasite system of open nests, parasitic eggs that are cryptic enough are prevented from being discovered and rejected by the host, and thus obtain the possibility of successful parasitism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Longwu Wang
- State Forestry Administration of China, Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Conservation in Mountainous Areas of Southwest Karst, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China
| | - Gangbin He
- State Forestry Administration of China, Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Conservation in Mountainous Areas of Southwest Karst, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China
| | - Yuhan Zhang
- State Forestry Administration of China, Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Conservation in Mountainous Areas of Southwest Karst, School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China
| | - Jianhua Ma
- Zhalong National Nature Reserve, Heilongjiang, Qiqihar, 161002, China
| | - Wei Liang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism of chestnut thrushes (Turdus rubrocanus). Behav Processes 2020; 178:104158. [PMID: 32497556 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2019] [Revised: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Recognizing and rejecting foreign eggs is one of the most effective anti-parasite strategies for hosts in avian brood parasitism. Studies have shown that most cuckoo (Cuculus spp.) hosts have evolved egg recognition abilities. Although some open-nesting birds, especially thrushes belonging to the family Turdidae, are rarely parasitized by cuckoos, they still have high egg recognition ability. This evolutionary selection pressure on egg recognition is currently controversial. Previous studies on egg recognition of thrushes have mainly been carried out in Europe in a single-cuckoo system. In this study, chestnut thrushes (Turdus rubrocanus), which are distributed in a multiple-cuckoo system in China, were used to test their egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism. Our results showed that chestnut thrushes had a rejection rate of 54 % for non-mimetic blue model eggs, showing moderate egg recognition ability. Their egg recognition was true recognition, which relied on a memory template; chestnut thrushes could accurately reject foreign eggs in their nests. This study added the second case to report the egg recognition mechanism of thrushes in the Turdidae family and showed that the evolution of egg recognition ability of chestnut thrushes was likely a retained anti-parasitic strategy because of being parasitized by cuckoos in the past.
Collapse
|
6
|
Nest defense and egg recognition in the grey-backed thrush (Turdus hortulorum): defense against interspecific or conspecific brood parasitism? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2759-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
|
7
|
Feng CZ, Yang CC, Liang W. Nest sanitation facilitates egg recognition in the common tailorbird, a plaintive cuckoo host. Zool Res 2019; 40:466-470. [PMID: 31502427 PMCID: PMC6755120 DOI: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2019.054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Chang-Zhang Feng
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou Hainan 571158, China
| | - Can-Chao Yang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou Hainan 571158, China
| | - Wei Liang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou Hainan 571158, China; E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|