Great spotted cuckoo nestlings have no antipredatory effect on magpie or carrion crow host nests in southern Spain.

ABSTRACT: Host defences against cuckoo parasitism and cuckoo trickeries to overcome them are a classic example of antagonistic coevolution. Recently it has been reported that this relationship may turn to be mutualistic in the case of the carrion crow (Corvus corone) and its brood parasite, the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius), given that experimentally and naturally parasitized nests were depredated at a lower rate than non-parasitized nests. This result was interpreted as a consequence of the antipredatory properties of a fetid cloacal secretion produced by cuckoo nestlings, which presumably deters predators from parasitized host nests. This potential defensive mechanism would therefore explain the detected higher fledgling success of parasitized nests during breeding seasons with high p

SUBMITTER: Soler M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5396876 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature