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Eggshell strength of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the puncture resistance hypothesis

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Abstract

Eggs of several brood parasites have thicker and stronger shells than expected for their size. The present study evaluated the puncture resistance hypothesis for the occurrence of thick-shelled eggs in common cuckoos Cuculus canorus by investigating costs of cuckoo egg ejection in four Acrocephalus warblers—the great reed warbler A. arundinaceus, reed warbler A. scirpaceus, marsh warbler A. palustris and sedge warbler A. schoenobaenus. The three latter species all suffered ejection costs, while ejection was not costly in the larger great reed warbler. The occurrence of ejection costs was negatively related to host bill size. In the marsh warbler, we compared ejection costs in naturally parasitized nests and two experimental treatments, in which broods were parasitized artificially with great reed warbler and conspecific eggs. Hosts damaged their own eggs significantly more often when ejecting the thick-shelled cuckoo eggs than when ejecting the similarly sized but thinner-shelled great reed warbler eggs, providing some support for the puncture resistance hypothesis. Ejection of conspecific eggs did not involve any costs. Furthermore, contrary to predictions derived from the laying damage hypothesis, there was no evidence that egg damage was associated with cuckoo egg laying. Hosts damaging their own eggs during ejection were more likely to subsequently desert their clutches than those that did not. The frequency of clutches smeared with the contents of the ejected egg were positively related to the hypothesized difficulty of foreign egg puncturing. Potential advantages of thicker shells in common cuckoo eggs are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank the staff at the Naturhistoriches Museum in Vienna, Austria, for allowing us to make bill measurements of the study species. We would like to thank all students and cooperators working in our Czech study area for assistance in the field. We are very grateful to Manuel Soler, Lesley Brooker and one anonymous referee for comments that significantly improved a previous version of the manuscript. B.G.S. was funded by the Research Council of Norway, grant no. 151641/432. All experiments complied with the current laws of Bulgaria and Czech Republic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bulgaria, Kozloduy 3320, bl. 64, ent. A, ap. 14, Kozloduy, Bulgaria

    Anton Antonov

  2. Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Realfagbygget, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Bård G. Stokke, Arne Moksnes & Eivin Røskaft

  3. Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway

    Oddmund Kleven

  4. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kvetna 8, 60365, Brno, Czech Republic

    Marcel Honza

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  1. Anton Antonov
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  2. Bård G. Stokke
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  3. Arne Moksnes
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  4. Oddmund Kleven
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  5. Marcel Honza
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  6. Eivin Røskaft
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Correspondence to Bård G. Stokke.

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Communicated by M. Soler

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Antonov, A., Stokke, B.G., Moksnes, A. et al. Eggshell strength of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the puncture resistance hypothesis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60, 11–18 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0132-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0132-6

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