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© 1992 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Rejection of cuckoo eggs in relation to host age: a possible evolutionary equilibrium

Arnon Lotem, Hiroshi Nakamura and Amotz Zahavi

Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Shinshu University Nishinagano, Nagano 380, Japan Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel

ABSTRACT

Because hosts that accept a parasitic egg laid by the common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, are unlikely to fledge their own offspring, rejection should be an adaptive response. Evidence that cuckoo host species attain only intermediate rates of rejection are commonly interpreted as resulting from an evolutionary lag. Yet, we found that the acceptance of cuckoo eggs by female great reed warblers, Acrocephalus arundinaceus, occurs mainly among the younger breeders in the host population. We suggest that some level of acceptance can arise in the host population as a result of the need of naive breeders to learn to reliably recognize their own eggs rather than representing evolutionary lag.


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