Editing Cuckoo (section)

===== Possible evidence of host benefits in the face of cuckoo parasitism =====
The parasitism is not necessarily entirely detrimental to the host species. A 16-year dataset was used in 2014 to find that [[carrion crow]] nests in a region of northern [[Spain]] were more successful overall (more likely to produce at least one crow fledgling) when parasitised by the [[great spotted cuckoo]]. The researchers attributed this to a strong-smelling predator-repelling substance secreted by cuckoo chicks when attacked, and noted that the interactions were not necessarily simply parasitic or mutualistic.<ref name = cuckoo_mutual_journal>{{Cite journal | last1=Canestrari | first1=Daniela | last2=Bolopo | first2=Diana | last3=Turlings | first3=T.C.J | last4=Röder | first4=Gregory | last5=Marcos | first5=J.M. | last6=Baglione | first6=Vittorio | journal=Science | volume=343 | issue=6177 | pages=1350–1352 | doi=10.1126/science.1249008 | url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1249008 | title=From Parasitism to Mutualism: Unexpected Interactions Between a Cuckoo and Its Host | date = March 2014| pmid=24653032 | bibcode=2014Sci...343.1350C | s2cid=25309832 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=cuckoo_mutual_news>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aaas.org/news/science-parasitic-cuckoos-provide-nest-protection-crow-hosts|title=Science: Parasitic Cuckoos Provide Nest Protection for Crow Hosts|website=American Association for the Advancement of Science|access-date=May 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804084045/https://www.aaas.org/news/science-parasitic-cuckoos-provide-nest-protection-crow-hosts|archive-date=4 August 2020}}</ref> This relationship was not observed for any other host species, or for any other species of cuckoo. Great spotted cuckoo chicks do not evict host eggs or young, and are smaller and weaker than carrion crow chicks, so both of these factors may have contributed to the effect observed.

Subsequent research using a dataset from southern Spain <ref name = cuckoo_mutual_false>{{Cite journal | last1=Soler | first1=Manuel | last2=de Neve | first2=Liesbeth | last3=Roldán | first3=María | last4=Pérez-Contreras | first4=Tomás | last5=Soler | first5=J.J. | journal=PLOS ONE | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0173080 | title=Great spotted cuckoo nestlings have no antipredatory effect on magpie or carrion crow host nests in southern Spain | date = April 2017| volume=12 | issue=4 | pages=e0173080 | pmid=28422953 | pmc=5396876 | bibcode=2017PLoSO..1273080S | s2cid=31416408 | doi-access=free }}</ref> failed to replicate these findings, and the second research team also criticised the methodology used in experiments described in the first paper. The authors of the first study have responded to points made in the second <ref name = cuckoo_mutual_response>{{Cite journal | last1=Canestrari | first1=Daniela | last2=Bolopo | first2=Diana | last3=Turlings | first3=T.C.J | last4=Röder | first4=Gregory | last5=Marcos | first5=J.M. | last6=Baglione | first6=Vittorio | journal=PLOS ONE | title=Formal comment to Soler et al.: Great spotted cuckoo nestlings have no antipredatory effect on magpie or carrion crow host nests in southern Spain | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0184446 | date=September 2017| volume=12 | issue=9 | pages=e0184446 | pmid=28922382 | pmc=5602529 | bibcode=2017PLoSO..1284446C | doi-access=free }}</ref> and both groups agree that further research is needed before the mutualistic effect can be considered proven.