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Impact of intraspecific brood parasitism on reproductive success of barn swallow females
Hodanová, Jana ; Jelínek, Václav (advisor) ; Klvaňa, Petr (referee)
Intraspecific nest parasitism is one of the alternative reproductive strategies of birds, in which a parasitic female lays her eggs in the nest of another female of the same species, thereby increasing her reproductive success while avoiding any demands on parental care. In this paper, I used data from long-term monitoring of a population of the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, in the Třeboň region. Using genetic analysis, I determined all parasitic and non-parasitic females that occurred in this socially monogamous species in the studied populations with regard to the difference between classical parasitism and quasi-parasitism. In my thesis, I also described the egg-laying timing of parasitic females in context of host egg-laying, compared qualitative characteristics of individual parasitic and non-parasitic females, and investigated the effect of parasitism on female reproductive success. The results suggest that female parasitism is a relatively common phenomenon in swallow populations and that the occurrence of parasitism cannot be predicted by the quality of females. However, I found a positive relationship between parasitism and female reproductive success. Finally, several ways of timing of parasitism have been observed. Key words Barn swallow, conspecific brood parasitism, hypotheses,...
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