Phenology modulates the top-down control of ants on bird ectoparasites: from mutualism to antagonism
Jesús M Avilés, Ángela Salido, Joaquín L Reyes-López, Deseada Parejo · 2025
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Description
Avilés and co-authors run a field experiment on an untested piece of natural history: do ants protect nesting birds by eating their parasites? Their system joins house sparrows, tree ants, and blood-feeding mites that plague nestlings. The team shut ants out of some sparrow nests and compared mite loads and chick growth with nests the ants could patrol. Blood stress markers in the chicks were also measured.
Early in the season, the ants earned their keep: nests with ants carried fewer mites and grew plumper chicks. Later the balance flipped, and ant presence did harm. Chicks in ant-free nests showed higher stress ratios throughout, and the modeling says the ants helped chicks mainly by cutting mites, not directly. The authors call it the first causal proof of ant parasite control in birds, with a warning: the friendship turns with the calendar.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jesús M Avilés, Ángela Salido, Joaquín L Reyes-López, Deseada Parejo |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 39 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |