Modeling the consequence of increased host tolerance toward avian brood parasitism

Abstract

Avian brood parasites greatly reduce the reproductive success of their hosts. Empirical studies have demonstrated that some hosts have evolved defenses against parasitism like an ability to recognize and reject parasitic eggs that are dissimilar to their own eggs. Detailed mechanisms of how hosts recognize parasitism still remain unknown, but recent studies have shown that the host’s recognition, in many cases, is based on discordance of the eggs in a clutch, and that hosts are more error-prone when the nest is multiply parasitized, i.e., hosts tend to accept more multiple parasitism than single parasitism. In an area in Hungary, the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus, one of the main hosts of the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus, is heavily parasitized and the parasitism rate has been kept at quite a high level for decades. Previous mathematical models suggest that such a high parasitism rate can be maintained because the focal host population behaves as a sink where few hosts can reproduce but immigration from outside replenishes the loss of host reproduction in the sink population. Here, we explore the consequences of the increased host tolerance towards multiple parasitism which has been overlooked in the previous studies using a simple model. Our model analysis shows that the increased host tolerance can dramatically contribute to both the parasite abundance and the parasitism rate being kept at a high level. We suggest that such a host behavior, combined with host immigration, can be an important factor responsible for the observed severe parasitism.