Abstract
Parasites have detrimental effects on their hosts’ fitness. Therefore, behavioural adaptations have evolved to avoid parasites or, when an individual is already in contact with a parasite, prevent or minimize infections. Such anti‐parasite behaviours can be very effective, but can also be costly for the host. Specifically, ectoparasites can elicit strong host anti‐parasite behaviours and interactions between fleas (Siphonaptera) and their hosts are one of the best studied. In altricial bird species, nest fleas can negatively affect both parent and offspring fitness components. However, knowledge on the effects of fleas on precocial bird species is scarce. Research on geese in the Canadian Arctic indicated that fleas have a negative impact on reproductive success. One possible hypothesis is that fleas may affect female incubation behaviour. Breeding females with many fleas in their nest may increase the frequency and/or duration of incubation breaks and could even totally desert their nest. The aim of our study was to 1) determine if a similar negative relationship existed between flea abundance and reproductive success in our study colony of Arctic breeding barnacle geeseBranta leucopsisand 2) experimentally quantify if such effects could be explained by a negative effect of nest fleas on female behaviour. We compared host anti‐parasite and incubation behaviour between experimentally flea‐reduced and control nests using wildlife cameras and temperature loggers. We found that flea abundance was negatively associated with hatching success. We found little experimental support, however, for changes in behaviour of the breeding female as a possible mechanism to explain this effect.
Highlights
Parasites generally have detrimental effects on their hosts’ fitness
We investigated the association between egg blood coverage and the number of hatchlings seen using generalized linear mixed effects models (GLMMs), with the number of eggs not seen as hatchlings and the number of hatchlings combined in a two-vector response variable, and a binomial error structure (Crawley 2007)
In this study we investigated the effects of nest fleas on the behaviour and reproductive success of a precocial species; Arctic breeding barnacle geese
Summary
Parasites generally have detrimental effects on their hosts’ fitness. hosts have evolved a wide range of physiological and behavioural responses to reduce parasitic costs (Norris 2000, Clayton et al 2010, Owen et al 2010). Pre-infection behaviours include temporal and spatial avoidance of parasite. Anti-parasite behaviours can be very effective in minimizing infection risk as is exemplified by an experimental study by Daly and Johnson (2011). They showed that Pacific chorus frog larvae Pseudacris regilla that were anesthetized and behaviourally impaired were more likely to become infected and had higher infection intensities with pathogenic trematodes (Ribeiroia and Echinostoma) than frog larvae that could display their natural avoidance behaviour. When parasite removal behaviours were restrained in different animal species, ectoparasite infection increased in comparison to control animals that could perform their natural parasite removal behaviours (e.g. birds: Brown 1972, Clayton et al 2005, Waite et al 2012; mammals: Bennett 1969, Mooring et al 1996)
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