Abstract
We report the first case of non-parental infanticide in the Black-billed Magpie Pica pica. Using a video camera installed in the victims' nest, we recorded repeated visits (over 4 days) of an adult (each time one bird) who attacked six nestlings at each visit until they died or were evicted. The nest was one of 58 nests filmed over four breeding seasons. Collected evidence suggests that the perpetrator(s) might have been the female breeder of the neighbouring nest, possibly also her male partner. The parental female aggressively attacked the perpetrator. Post-infanticide expansion of breeding territory by the suspected perpetrator is the hypothetical ultimate explanation of the observed infanticide. Movie clips from inside the nest are shown at: http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo110422pp01a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo110422bm01a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo110422pp02a, and http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo110422pp03a.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 401-407 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Ethology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments We are grateful to magpie team members for sharing all the field work. This study was supported by the ‘‘Long-term Ecological Monitoring on Animal Populations’’ program of the Ministry of Environment, and partly by National Research Foundation grant nos. 2011-0003944; 2010-0029613; 2010-K001149; 2010-0025546; 2007-313-C00747, as well as the Brain Korean 21 Project 2010. The field method employed in this study complies with the current laws of South Korea.
Keywords
- Black-billed Magpie
- Competition
- Density dependence
- Infanticide
- Sexual selection