The impact of learning foster species' song on the evolution of specialist avian brood parasitism
The impact of learning foster species' song on the evolution of specialist avian brood parasitism
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DOI：
10.1093/beheco/arg082
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发表时间：
2003-11-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
ten Cate, C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beltman, JB;Haccou, P;ten Cate, C
专性种间鸟类亲巢寄生虫不建立自己的巢，但在其他物种的巢产卵。有人提出，一个灵活的歌曲学习机制（复制寄养物种的异种歌曲）促进了育雏寄生行为的进化。某些种类的歌曲复制是共同的所有鸣禽，因此，为了更好地了解育雏寄生的进化，重要的是要研究歌曲学习的作用。所提出的假设没有考虑到灵活的歌曲学习可能会使配偶收购更加困难，因为男性的首选育雏寄生的女性将最初罕见。我们通过两个人口动态模型来研究这一点。通过使用一个递归方程模型的育雏寄生虫与他们的筑巢的祖先竞争，我们表明，灵活的歌曲学习确实是一个障碍，育雏寄生的进化。结果从一个更现实的，以个人为基础的模型，其中的育雏寄生性状可以逐步演变，证实了这一发现。然而，我们也表明，灵活的歌曲学习的障碍，可以很容易地克服时，男性也是承运人的育雏寄生性状。这可能是因为育雏寄生在雄性中是一种中性特征，这增加了携带育雏寄生基因的突变体的数量，从而使雌性更容易找到合适的伴侣。
Obligate interspecific avian brood parasites do not build nests of their own but lay their eggs in the nests of other species. It has been proposed that a flexible song learning mechanism (copying the heterospecific songs of the foster species) facilitates the evolution of brood-parasitic behavior. Some sort of song copying is common to all songbirds; hence, to better understand the evolution of brood parasitism it is important to study the role of song learning. The proposed hypothesis does not take into account that flexible song learning might make mate acquisition more difficult because males that are preferred by brood-parasitic females would be initially rare. We examine this by means of two population dynamic models. By using a recurrence equation model of brood parasites competing with their nestbuilding ancestors, we show that flexible song learning is indeed an obstacle to the evolution of brood parasitism. Results from a more realistic, individual-based model, in which the brood-parasitic trait can evolve more gradually, confirm this finding. However, we also show that the obstacle of flexible song learning can be overcome quite easily when males also are carriers of the brood-parasitic trait. This is probably because brood parasitism is a neutral trait in males, which increases the number of mutants carrying genes for brood parasitism, and thus makes the female task of finding suitable partners easier.