Cross-continental test of natal philopatry and habitat-imprinting hypotheses to explain host specificity in an obligate brood parasite
- 27 February 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in The Science of Nature
- Vol. 107 (2), 1-8
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-1667-0
Abstract
Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanisms responsible for maintenance of host-specific gentes in the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). Some of them expect that when adult cuckoos return to lay their eggs to their natal site (natal philopatry hypothesis) or habitat in which they were reared (habitat-imprinting hypothesis), there is a higher probability of finding nests of the host species by which they were reared. Since published evidence is ambiguous, we here evaluate the natal philopatry and habitat-imprinting hypotheses using information on habitat homogeneity and cross-continental long-term ringing data. We found no evidence for the natal philopatry hypothesis—instead of returning to their natal site, juvenile cuckoos exhibited longer dispersal movements than adults, and the difference was even larger in comparison with a wide array of cuckoo host species. On the contrary, we found support for the habitat-imprinting hypothesis—juvenile cuckoos followed similar levels of natal habitat homogeneity at 5- and 25-km scale when returning to breed in the next years. Our results suggest that preference for the particular habitat structures may help cuckoos to find appropriate hosts.Keywords
Funding Information
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky (17-12262S)
- Akademie Věd České Republiky (RVO: 68081766)
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