Strategy selection under conspecific brood parasitism: an integrative modeling approach

Kim Jaatinen, Jussi Lehtonen and Hanna Kokko

Behavioral Ecology, 2011, vol. 22, issue 1, 144-155

Abstract: Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP), where females lay eggs in nests of conspecifics, is taxonomically widespread. Following recent calls to consider CBP in a more integrative manner, we explore breeding strategies related to CBP by using a model of competing strategies that incorporates variation in individual quality, relatedness, recognition of own versus parasite-laid eggs, as well as the costs of egg laying and postlaying care. Our model creates 5 main conclusions. First, variation in individual quality plays a central role in shaping breeding strategies. Second, kinship plays a central role in the evolution of CBP. Third, egg recognition ability may affect the prevalence of parasitism: If hosts recognize parasitic eggs, relatedness between host and parasite facilitates CBP. Fourth, the relative costs of egg laying and postlaying care play a so far underestimated role in determining the prevalence of parasitism. Fifth, natal philopatry may lead to a reduction in productivity. To sum up, our theoretical study combines factors known to affect both breeding in general and CBP in particular and shows that these factors can explain a large proportion of the variation in CBP strategies found in the wild and therefore facilitates the understanding of the mechanisms shaping these strategies. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arq162 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:22:y:2011:i:1:p:144-155

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().