In contrast, there is little information on whether brood parasites are innately born with their complex behavioural repertoire or have to learn and refine their abilities over their lifetimes. There is evidence that hosts of avian and insect brood parasites use their past individual experience 15, 16, 17, as well as information shared through social learning 18, 19, 20, to enhance their behavioural responses to brood parasites. The current evidence for learning in behavioural interactions between brood parasites and their hosts comes mainly from the host’s perspective. This response is primarily accomplished through learning-the alteration of behaviour (and the resulting behavioural outcome) obtained from repeated exposure to information 14. Within this game played at the evolutionary scale, brood parasites and their hosts may hone their capabilities over individual lifespans. Over recent decades, research on interspecific brood parasitism in birds and social insects has considerably advanced our general understanding of coevolutionary dynamics 10, 13. The ensuing evolution of more refined parasite strategies to overcome host defences may turn into coevolutionary arms races between brood parasites and their hosts 11, 12, 13, sometimes leading to a host switch by brood parasites to escape host countermeasures 12. ![]() Negative consequences of brood parasitism for host fitness 2, 6, 7, 8 can elicit the rapid evolution of host counter-adaptations 9, 10. This outcome reduces, and often entirely eliminates, the benefits of parental care for the host’s own offspring 5. By deceiving their hosts, they relegate the burden of brood care to the parents of another species 2, forcing them into costly alloparental care 3, 4. Obligate brood parasites target a particularly valuable resource 1-the reproductive effort of care-giving host species. Hence, within the coevolutionary arms races, brood parasites learn to overcome host defences during their lifetime. With increasing experience, cuckoo catfish increased their parasitism success by greater efficiency through improved timing and coordination of intrusions of host spawnings. We experimentally demonstrate that cuckoo catfish greatly enhance their efficiency in parasitising their hosts as they learn to overcome host defences. ![]() Cuckoo catfish ( Synodontis multipunctatus) parasitise clutches of mouthbrooding cichlids in Lake Tanganyika and are the only non-avian obligate brood parasites among vertebrates. In brood parasites, however, the role of learning can be obscured by their stealthy behaviour. Hosts can also mitigate fitness costs of brood parasitism by learning from individual or social experience. Brood parasites are involved in coevolutionary arms races with their hosts, whereby adaptations of one partner elicit the rapid evolution of counter-adaptations in the other partner.
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