Can conspecific brood parasitism bear some costs to the host in the Common Pochard (Aythya ferina)?

0357756 - ÚBO 2011 CZ eng A - Abstract
Petrželková, A. - Klvaňa, P. - Albrecht, Tomáš - Hořák, D.
Can conspecific brood parasitism bear some costs to the host in the Common Pochard (Aythya ferina)?
Zoologické dny Brno 2011: sborník abstraktů z konference 17.-18. února 2011. Brno: Ústav biologie obratlovců AVČR, 2011 - (Bryja, J.; Řehák, Z.; Zukal, J.). s. 177-178. ISBN 978-80-87189-09-2.
[Zoologické dny. 17.02.2011-18.02.2011, Brno]
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60930519
Keywords : Common Pochard * brood parasitism
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
http://zoo.ivb.cz/doc/sborniky/sbornik_2011.pdf

Conspecific brood parasitism is an alternative reproductive tactic in which parasitic females lay eggs in the nests of other females of the same species who carry out the subsequent parental care. This behaviour occurs in egg laying animals such as insects, fish, amphibia and in particular birds. Recognition of parasitic eggs and young is often difficult and traditional methods underestimate the degree of parasitism. It was therefore thought that conspecific brood parasitism is rare, but molecular methods have now shown that this tactic is common especially in precocial species with no costly parental care. Our model species, the Common Pochard (Aythya ferina), is a semicolonial duck with precocial young and a normal clutch containing on average 8-12 eggs. During 2008-2010, we studied the occurrence of conspecific brood parasitism in the Common Pochard breeding in the Poodří Landscape Protected Area, Czech Republic. We used protein fingerprinting of egg albumen to identify parasitic eggs. Among 43 nests in three seasons 162 eggs out of 432 (37.5%) were parasitic. Parasitism occurred in total in 40 nests (93%). There was a significant negative correlation between the number of parasitic eggs and the number of host eggs. This suggests that parasitism is costly for the host, but other explanations are also possible.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0195953