Journal
FACETS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages 2155-2176Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/facets-2021-01042155
Keywords
alternative reproductive strategies; annual survival; conspecific brood parasitism; date of nest initiation; hatching success; Mergus serrator; red-breasted merganser
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [DDG-2019-06038]
- New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund
- McGill University
- Bird Protection Quebec
- Sea Duck Joint Venture
- Universite Sainte-Anne
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The study revealed potential measurable costs of conspecific brood parasitism on the lifetime reproductive success of red-breasted mergansers, particularly limited to heavily parasitized nests.
The addition of eggs to a nest by a conspecific is known for approximately 250 bird species. Understanding the evolution of conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) requires assessment of fitness consequences to the egg recipient (host). We addressed host traits and the effects of CBP on future reproduction (i.e., annual survival) and hatching success of hosts by following the nesting of 206 red-breasted mergansers (Mergus serrator) for a colony in which an average of 41% of nests was parasitized annually. Each host was tracked for >= 2 seasons and up to seven seasons. The proportion of a host's nesting attempts that was parasitized averaged 43% and varied considerably across individuals (range 0%-100%). Probability of parasitism, however, was not repeatable across a host's nests. Rather, rates of CBP throughout a host's lifetime increased with earlier dates of nest initiation. CBP had no effect on annual survival of a host. Hatching success throughout a host's lifetime declined with a greater number of foreign eggs added to the individual's nests. This study revealed that there may be measurable costs of CBP to lifetime reproductive success in red-breasted mergansers, although our observations suggest that costs to hosts are limited to the most heavily parasitized clutches.
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