Australian cuckoos and their adaptations for brood parasitism

澳大利亚的杜鹃及其寄生适应性(英文)

The strategies used by parasitic cuckoos to fool their hosts have intrigued naturalists and ornithologists for centuries. Here I review some of the tricks used by Australian parasitic cuckoos to increase host nest availability, access host nests, and fool their hosts into accepting their eggs and chicks. Some of these strategies are widely used by cuckoo species around the world, but other traits, such as cryptic eggs and mimetic chicks, appear to be largely restricted to the Australasian cuckoos. Generalist cuckoos face greater challenges than specialists if they must fool multiple host species, and this provides a possible explanation for why different species of cuckoos have evolved different strategies for host deception.

长期以来,人们一直对寄生性繁殖的杜鹃所采用的种种计谋惊叹不已。本文对澳大利亚的寄生杜鹃如何增加寄生巢的可获得性、如何寻找和接近巢以及如何让宿主接受它们的寄生卵与雏鸟进行了综述。这些杜鹃所采用的对策,有一些是世界上其他杜鹃种类也采用的,但有一些对策,如产隐蔽的卵和模拟的雏鸟,却似乎仅见于澳大利亚的杜鹃。泛性寄生的杜鹃因为要应对较多种类的宿主,难度自然远大于专一性寄生的杜鹃种类,这同时也解释了为什么不同种类的杜鹃进化出不同的寄生策略,以避免不同宿主的识别。