2016/05/18 by Sarah Golüke, Sebastian Dörrenberg, E. Tobias Krause +1 · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Plant and animal studies #Avian ecology and behavior #Taeniopygia #Biology #Zebra finch #Zoology #Brood parasite #Mate choice #Hatching #Intraspecific competition #Olfaction #Offspring #Animal sexual behaviour #Nest (protein structural motif) #Ecology #Parasitism #Host (biology) #Mating #Population #Demography
paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155513
openalex publication_date 2016/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Parental investment in unrelated offspring seems maladaptive from an evolutionary perspective, due to the costs of energy and resources that cannot be invested in related offspring at the same time. Therefore selection should favour mechanisms to discriminate between own and foreign offspring. In birds, much emphasis has been placed on understanding the visual mechanisms underlying egg recognition. However, olfactory egg recognition has almost been completely ignored. Here, we investigated whether female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are able to discriminate between their own and a conspecific egg based on olfactory cues alone. Zebra finches are colonial-breeding songbirds. Eggs are monomorphic, i.e. without any spotting pattern, and intraspecific brood parasitism frequently occurs. In a binary choice experiment, female zebra finches were given the choice between the scent of their own and a conspecific egg. After the onset of incubation, females chose randomly and showed no sign of discrimination. However, shortly before hatching, females preferred significantly the odour of their own egg. The finding that females are capable to smell their own egg may inspire more research on the potential of olfaction involved in egg recognition, especially in cases where visual cues might be limited.