Journal
JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY
Volume 42, Issue 3, Pages 231-238Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-048X.2010.05288.x
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research [ARCFAC-026129-60, ARCFAC-026129-2008-03]
- Swedish Research Council
- Hasselblad foundation foundation
- Lennander foundation
- Wilhelm and Martina Lundgren foundation
- Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, Goteborg
- Colliander foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Conspecific brood parasitism (GBP) is an alternative reproductive tactic found in many animals with parental care. Parasitizing females lay eggs in the nests of other females (hosts) of the same species, which incubate and raise both their own and the foreign offspring. The causes and consequences of CBP are debated. Using albumen fingerprinting of eggs for accurately detecting parasitism, we here analyse its relation to female condition and clutch size in High Arctic common eiders Somateria mollissima borealis. Among 166 clutches in a Svalbard colony, 31 (19%) contained eggs from more than one female, and 40 of 670 eggs (6%) were parasitic. In 6 cases an active nest with egg(s) was taken over by another female. Many suitable nest sites were unoccupied, indicating that CBP and nest takeover are reproductive tactics, not only consequences of nest site shortage. Similarity in body mass between female categories suggests that condition does not determine whether a nesting female becomes parasitised. There was no evidence of low condition in parasites: egg size was similar in hosts and parasites, and parasitism was equally frequent early and late in the laying season. Meta-analysis of this and 3 other eider studies shows that there is a cost of being parasitised in this precocial species: host females laid on average 7% fewer eggs than other females.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available