Russet Sparrows spot alien chicks from their nests
Russet Sparrows spot alien chicks from their nests
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赤褐色麻雀在巢中发现外星雏鸟
DOI：
10.1186/s40657-018-0104-y
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发表时间：
2018-03-28
期刊：
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Moller, Anders Pape
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Huo, Juan;Yang, Canchao;Moller, Anders Pape
背景在寄生寄生虫与其宿主之间的共同进化相互作用中，宿主父母受到强烈选择以进化出针对寄生的防御能力。卵排斥是针对寄生虫的有效且常见的防御措施，尽管一些明显合适的宿主并不排斥杜鹃卵。方法麻雀科雀科在整个旧大陆广泛分布，它们有适合饲养杜鹃的饮食，但它们仍然很少被巢寄生虫利用。为了解决这个难题，我们在赤麻雀（Passer cinnamomeus）身上进行了人工寄生和交叉寄养实验。结果本研究表明，赤麻雀没有蛋识别能力，但能识别自己的雏鸟，并驱逐外来雏鸟或将其饿死。尽管它们接受姐妹物种树麻雀（Passer montanus），但它们可能会使用视觉线索来识别雏鸟。结论通过拒绝外来物种的雏鸟，赤褐色麻雀成功地摆脱了布谷鸟和其他寄生虫的巢寄生。我们的研究揭示了为什么某些物种不被杜鹃寄生虫用作宿主的谜团。
BackgroundIn coevolutionary interactions between brood parasites and their hosts, host parents are under strong selection to evolve defenses against parasitism. Egg rejection is an efficient and common defense against parasitism, although some apparently suitable hosts do not reject cuckoo eggs.MethodsSparrows Ploceidae are widespread throughout the Old World, and they have a suitable diet for rearing cuckoos, but still they are rarely exploited by brood parasites. To solve such puzzle, we conducted artificial parasitism and cross-fostering experiments in Russet Sparrow (Passer cinnamomeus).ResultsThe present study showed that Russet Sparrows have no egg recognition ability, but recognize their own nestlings and eject alien chicks or starve them to death. They may use visual cues in chick recognition, although they accept sister species Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus).ConclusionsBy rejecting nestlings of foreign species, Russet Sparrows have succeeded to escape from the brood parasitism by cuckoos and other parasites. Our studies shed light on the puzzle why some species are not utilized by cuckoo parasites as hosts.