BIO318Y5 Lecture : 2nd half Lecture 1
Document Summary
Fig 1. 13 from animal behaviour copyright sinauer press (from original gary larson cartoon) Darwinian selection and the biological environment: the creation of biodiversity. Host cuckoo model from: brooke & davies (1988) nature 335:630. Cuckoos are social parasites which lay their eggs in other species of birds and never care for their young. Each cuckoo race specializes on a different host where it lays its eggs to look like the host"s eggs. Hosts are good at discriminating against parasite eggs. The more incubation costs are the better the host is at discriminating against parasite eggs and the higher the cuckoo eggs matching the host eggs! Low cost of incubation is reason why dunnocks not evolve to discriminate against parasite eggs. No flexibility in what hosts to lay eggs in (each race specialized) + phenotypic differences between the races. But have gene flow between the races e because males can mate with females from any race.
