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10 - Contest behaviour in fishes
- Edited by Ian C. W. Hardy, University of Nottingham, Mark Briffa, University of Plymouth
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- Book:
- Animal Contests
- Published online:
- 05 June 2013
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2013, pp 199-227
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Summary
Summary
Fishes have been central to our understanding of many of the major aspects of contest behaviour, extending from Tinbergen's early work on social releasers to some of the initial tests of assessment models and now to the neuroendocrine and genomic regulation of aggression and dominance. In this chapter, we focus on some exciting areas of research in fish contest behaviour that promise to shed light on the multidimensionality of resource holding potential (RHP), sex- and size-related differences in decision-making during contests, whole-organism performance and fight outcomes, selection and potential constraints on contest behaviour; and the role of developmental plasticity in driving RHP-related phenotypic variation. We have developed this chapter more as a prospectus than a review, using the concrete foundation laid down by numerous researchers to highlight areas that could be of great import in the years to come. This approach, of course, leaves us with many unanswered questions that we hope will serve as a springboard for rigorous hypothesis testing using an integrative framework for fish contest behaviour.
Introduction
The formal study of fish aggression has a long and prolific history dating back at least 70 years to a curious observation of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, responding intensely to a red postal truck that would occasionally pass the window of Niko Tinbergen's laboratory (Kruuk 2003, p. 87). What triggered aggression in the sticklebacks, of course, was not the truck but rather the colour red, a trait that males boast on their throat and ventral surface during the breeding season (ter Pelwijk & Tinbergen 1937), and that might indicate an imminent threat to a resident male's territory (Bolyard & Rowland 1996). Tinbergen and his contemporaries subsequently made significant efforts to identify behavioural, morphological and chromatic ‘releasers’ of aggression (e.g. Seitz 1940, Tinbergen 1948 and references in Earley et al. 2000).
Does prey size induce head skeleton phenotypic plasticity during early ontogeny in the snake Boa constrictor?
- Gordon W. Schuett, David L. Hardy, Ryan L. Earley, Harry W. Greene
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- Journal:
- Journal of Zoology / Volume 267 / Issue 4 / December 2005
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 November 2005, pp. 363-369
- Print publication:
- December 2005
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Diet was manipulated in juveniles of the snake Boa constrictor (Serpentes: Boidae) to test the hypothesis of whether prey size induces phenotypic plasticity of the head skeleton. Additionally, the onset of sexual size dimorphisms (SSDs) was determined under a feeding schedule where total prey mass consumed by snakes was held constant. Twenty-three neonatal B. constrictor from a single-sired litter were placed into two treatment groups but maintained under identical environmental conditions. Group 1 (small-food treatment) was fed weanling mice throughout the entire study; group 2 (large-food treatment) was fed weanling mice, followed by rats of increasing size as the size of the snakes increased. At the termination of the study, group 1 consumed more meals but both groups consumed an equivalent mass of rodents. The snakes were measured twice during the study (5 weeks and 58 weeks). All measurements were obtained while the snakes were under general anaesthesia. Linear measurements of the head skeleton (premaxilla–basioccipital (rostrum–occipital) length, ROL; mandible length, ML) were derived from radiographs. The remaining measurements were snout–vent length (SVL), body length (BL), tail length (TL), and body mass (BM). Treatment effects between groups were equivalent, with the exception of BM and TL (group 1>group 2), and interactions between main effects were not statistically significant. Between-group differences in ROL and ML were not significant; thus, prey size did not exert an influence on growth of the head skeleton. In contrast, significant sex effects on SVL and BL (females>males) and TL (males>females) were detected, and sex effects on BM (females>males) approached significance. Because SSDs emerged during early ontogeny under conditions where prey mass consumed was held constant, a genetic role is implicated.
Modulation of aggressive behaviour by fighting experience: mechanisms and contest outcomes
- Yuying Hsu, Ryan L. Earley, Larry L. Wolf
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- Journal:
- Biological Reviews / Volume 81 / Issue 1 / February 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 September 2005, pp. 33-74
- Print publication:
- February 2006
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Experience in aggressive contests often affects behaviour during, and the outcome of, later contests. This review discusses evidence for, variations in, and consequences of such effects. Generally, prior winning experiences increase, and prior losing experiences decrease, the probability of winning in later contests, reflecting modifications of expected fighting ability. We examine differences in the methodologies used to study experience effects, and the relative importance and persistence of winning and losing experiences within and across taxa. We review the voluminous, but somewhat disconnected, literature on the neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate experience effects. Most studies focus on only one of a number of possible mechanisms without providing a comprehensive view of how these mechanisms are integrated into overt behaviour. More carefully controlled work on the mechanisms underlying experience effects is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.
Behavioural changes during contests that relate to prior experience fall into two general categories. Losing experiences decrease willingness to engage in a contest while winning experiences increase willingness to escalate a contest. As expected from the sequential assessment model of contest behaviour, experiences become less important to outcomes of contests that escalate to physical fighting.
A limited number of studies indicate that integration of multiple experiences can influence current contest behaviour. Details of multiple experience integration for any species are virtually unknown. We propose a simple additive model for this integration of multiple experiences into an individual's expected fighting ability. The model accounts for different magnitudes of experience effects and the possible decline in experience effects over time.
Predicting contest outcomes based on prior experiences requires an algorithm that translates experience differences into contest outcomes. We propose two general types of model, one based solely on individual differences in integrated multiple experiences and the other based on the probability contests reach the escalated phase. The difference models include four algorithms reflecting possible decision rules that convert the perceived fighting abilities of two rivals into their probabilities of winning. The second type of algorithm focuses on how experience influences the probability that a subsequent contest will escalate and the fact that escalated contests may not be influenced by prior experience. Neither type of algorithm has been systematically investigated.
Finally, we review models for the formation of dominance hierarchies that assume that prior experience influences contest outcome. Numerous models have reached varied conclusions depending on which factors examined in this review are included. We know relatively little about the importance of and variation in experience effects in nature and how they influence the dynamics of aggressive interactions in social groups and random assemblages of individuals. Researchers should be very active in this area in the next decade. The role of experience must be integrated with other influences on contest outcome, such as prior residency, to arrive at a more complete picture of variations in contest outcomes. We expect that this integrated view will be important in understanding other types of interactions between individuals, such as mating and predator-prey interactions, that also are affected significantly by prior experiences.
5 - Fighting, mating and networking: pillars of poeciliid sociality
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- By Ryan L. Earley, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA, Lee Alan Dugatkin, University of Louisville, USA
- Edited by P. K. McGregor
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- Book:
- Animal Communication Networks
- Published online:
- 06 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2005, pp 84-113
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Summary
We are both spectators and actors in this great drama of existence
Niels BohrIntroduction
Poeciliid fishes such as green swordtails Xiphophorus helleri and guppies Poecilia reticulata aggregate in social groups called shoals. In addition to reducing predation risk and increasing foraging efficiency (e.g. Magurran & Pitcher, 1987; Ranta & Juvonen, 1993), fish shoals promote the transfer of social information within the group. For instance, information about foraging routes is transmitted from trained individuals to naive fish in guppy shoals (Laland & Williams, 1997; Swaney et al., 2001; Brown & Laland, 2002). The type of information transfer demonstrated in the social learning and foraging literature involves the transmission of signals from one or more individuals to the remaining group members. Investigations of social foraging and anti-predator behaviour have demonstrated that poeciliids attend to a variety of cues emitted by both conspecifics and heterospecifics (e.g. predators: Brown & Godin, 1999; Mirza et al., 2001; Brosnan et al., 2003). Although social learning and anti-predator responses constitute important aspects of group living in poeciliids, this chapter focuses more on how individuals gain information from observing interactions that occur in their social environment. Indeed, the concept of communication networks was founded on the premise that the information exchanged during social interactions (e.g. agonistic or courtship displays) may be available not only to the participants but also to bystanders within signal detection range (McGregor, 1993; McGregor et al., 2000).