Ethology最新文献

{"title":"Adoption of satellite behavior by small male green treefrogs, Dryophytes cinereus, is not associated with age: Implications for the maintenance of alternative behavioral phenotypes","authors":"Christopher J. Leary,&nbsp;Sarah P. Crocker-Buta,&nbsp;Joseph G. C. Kennedy,&nbsp;Jason R. Bohenek","doi":"10.1111/eth.13496","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13496","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Body size is often a critical determinant of competitive ability and reproductive behavior. For example, small males characteristically lose contests with larger males and may be metabolically constrained from sustaining energetically demanding reproductive behaviors. Small males thus often utilize alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) to maximize their reproductive success. How variation in body size among behavioral phenotypes arises can provide important insight into the maintenance of ARTs. For instance, smaller body sizes for males adopting ARTs may simply be a function of age, suggesting that the tactic is maintained by the periodic recruitment of young males into the population. Alternatively, body size differences among behavioral phenotypes that are unrelated to age suggest disparate growth rates that potentially arise as a consequence of variation in environmental conditions during development or genotypic differences between the phenotypes. Here we examine these alternative scenarios in the green treefrog, <i>Dryophytes cinereus</i>, using skeletochronological analysis combined with body size measures. As with many other anuran amphibians, male green treefrogs conditionally adopt a noncalling satellite mating tactic and attempt to intercept females attracted to the vocalizations of calling “host” males. We show that males adopting satellite behavior in natural choruses are smaller than calling males but do not represent a class of younger individuals, indicating that satellite males have lower growth rates than calling males. We also show that satellite males are in poorer condition than larger calling males, implicating energetic constraints in size-related variation in mating tactic expression. Our work suggests that environmental conditions during development, genetic differences between phenotypes, or both, give rise to size discrepancies in behavioral phenotypes, neither of which have been previously explored in anurans. We discuss body size and condition differences between behavioral phenotypes in the context of energetic constraints and endocrine mediation of tactic expression in this species.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141569421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unraveling female mate choice in Schizocosa mccooki: The interplay of male mass and vibratory courtship","authors":"Lin Yan,&nbsp;Athena Sabaria,&nbsp;Damian O. Elias,&nbsp;Malcolm F. Rosenthal","doi":"10.1111/eth.13494","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13494","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sexual selection is an important evolutionary force and despite extensive research, understanding mate choice on naturally occurring trait variation remains an intriguing area of study. The correlation between mass, a trait associated with courter viability and common target for mate choice, and signals is particularly noteworthy. This study focuses on <i>Schizocosa mccooki</i>, the largest member of a wolf spider genus renowned for its diverse complex male courtship. Our objective was to understand the relationship of male mass and other courtship signals on female choice within this species. We conducted lab experiments involving random pairings of field caught males and females, recording vibratory courtship and its outcomes. Our findings revealed that <i>S. mccooki</i> courtship consisted of vibratory signals with two major components, thumps and raps. Male mass, overall courtship vigor, and thump duration were found to predict mating success. Interestingly, we found no correlation between temporal traits and mass suggesting independent information and an absence of trade-offs between mass, courtship vigor, and signal component rates/durations. Instead, we found that heavier males tend to produce thumps with lower frequencies. The finding that male mass predicts mating success contrasts with patterns observed in other species in this well-studied genus. By uncovering the mate choice patterns of <i>S. mccooki</i>, this study underscores the importance of comparative studies to understand the ways in which sexual selection drives diversification, even among closely related taxa.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141506992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wave of mutilation: Scavenging hermit crabs use social information to locate carcasses","authors":"Annie Rowe,&nbsp;Arantzazu Pagonabarraga Altisen,&nbsp;Adèle Dubosque,&nbsp;Anna Hills,&nbsp;Akanksha Shah,&nbsp;Anna Vegh,&nbsp;A. Li Veiros,&nbsp;Mike M. Webster","doi":"10.1111/eth.13493","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13493","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Carcasses are patchily distributed and often short-lived resources, placing scavenging animals under pressure to locate them before they rot or are depleted by competitors. Scavengers may search for carcasses directly, or indirectly, using social information. Aggregations of feeding animals and their conspicuous competitive behaviour may be more readily detectable to searching scavengers than the carcass itself. Moreover, the actions of attendant scavengers upon the carcass, breaking it apart and releasing odour or chemical cues, may further enhance its detectability to others foraging nearby. Here we test this idea. In the first of two experiments performed in the field, we found that hermit crabs (<i>Pagurus bernhardus</i>) were attracted to shelled mussels (<i>Mytilus edulis</i>) that other hermit crabs were already feeding on. They showed no strong tendency to approach aggregations of conspecifics in the absence of food, nor conspecifics that were confined close to mussels but prevented from feeding on them. We speculated that through breaking up the carcass, the feeding hermit crabs released chemical cues and drifting particles of mussel tissue that further attracted other hermit crabs. We tested this in a second experiment, finding that finely chopped mussels attracted significantly more hermit crabs than did intact mussels. We suggest that scavenger feeding action upon carcasses makes these more detectable to others by releasing odour and particle plumes, a form of inadvertently produced social information.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13493","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141506993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conflicting cognitive decisions: Does egg retrieval modify egg rejection in a host of an obligate brood parasite?","authors":"Brian D. Peer,&nbsp;Nicholas Vozza","doi":"10.1111/eth.13492","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13492","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Egg retrieval is an ancient behaviour displayed by birds in which a displaced egg is transferred back into the nest. Egg rejection, in contrast, is a recently evolved adaptation by hosts of brood parasites in which an egg is removed from a nest. These conflicting behaviours are both adaptive because they prevent reproductive losses, but egg retrieval may benefit brood parasites if hosts retrieve parasitic eggs into their nests. We examined these conflicting cognitive processes in the prothonotary warbler (<i>Protonotaria citrea</i>), a cavity-nesting host of the brown-headed cowbird (<i>Molothrus ater</i>). Eggs and nestlings are occasionally found on the rims of warbler nest cavities. We determined how this happened using video cameras and tested whether warblers retrieved their own eggs more often than cowbird eggs. We also determined if shape affects retrieval and rejection by placing cylinders inside nest cups or onto nest rims. We found that eggs were displaced by rapidly departing warblers whose nests are constantly prospected by nest competitors and brood parasites. Warblers retrieved their eggs (29%) and cowbird eggs (19%) at similar rates, and never rejected cowbird eggs after retrieval. Warblers removed most cylinders from nest rims and cups (89% and 78%, respectively), and never retrieved them. Warblers have retained egg retrieval at a low level and its expression is costly because they only retrieve a low level of their own eggs and also retrieve cowbird eggs, which benefits the brood parasite.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13492","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141526249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fitness consequences of variation in social group size are not population-specific but are associated with access to food in the communally breeding rodent, Octodon degus","authors":"Loren D. Hayes,&nbsp;Madeline K. Strom,&nbsp;Cecilia León,&nbsp;Juan Ramírez-Estrada,&nbsp;Sara Grillo,&nbsp;Cuilan L. Gao,&nbsp;Rodrigo A. Vásquez,&nbsp;Luis A. Ebensperger","doi":"10.1111/eth.13491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13491","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Studies that concurrently investigate the functional benefits of group living in multiple populations of the same species are rare. Over a 3-year period (2014–2016), we examined two ecologically contrasting populations to test multiple hypotheses for the adaptive significance of group living in the communally breeding rodent <i>Octodon degus</i>. We quantified the size of social units (number of adults, number of adult females), edible vegetation at burrow systems, and per capita offspring weaned (PCOW) in each population. Contrary to expectations, we did not observe population-specific associations between group size and edible vegetation or PCOW nor universal benefits of group living. In one population, PCOW increased in mid-sized groups with more edible vegetation. However, this trend was not consistent across years. Notably, we observed a complete reproductive failure in one population during the first year of study, one that was characterized by low rainfall and no detectable edible vegetation. This result is important because reproductive failure occurred regardless of group size, suggesting that communal living may not buffer degus against the harshest of environmental conditions. Examining how social organization shapes individual reproductive success under extreme variation in food availability is an important step towards understanding how populations will respond to a changing climate.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141967330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Burying in lake sediments: A potential tactic used by female northern map turtles to avoid male harassment","authors":"Grégory Bulté,&nbsp;Jessica A. Robichaud,&nbsp;Steven J. Cooke,&nbsp;Heath A. MacMillan,&nbsp;Gabriel Blouin-Demers","doi":"10.1111/eth.13488","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13488","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How often males and females need to mate to maximize their fitness is a source of sexual conflict in animals. Sexual conflict over mating frequency can lead to antagonistic coevolution in which males employ tactics to coerce females into mating, while females resist or evade mating attempts by males. Here, we report on a novel burying behavior observed in female northern map turtles (<i>Graptemys geographica</i>) in Opinicon Lake, Ontario, Canada that appears to function as a tactic to avoid male detection during the mating season. Underwater videos indicated that females are heavily solicited during the mating season with over half the females being actively pursued by males. Biologgers indicated that females are less active and remain deeper than males during the mating season. Our data strongly suggest that female northern map turtles avoid intense solicitation and potential harassment by males by burying themselves in lake sediments. This behavior appears to be a low-cost solution for females to reduce the costs of resistance and mating while they are constrained to habitats with high male densities for overwintering.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13488","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141345240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioral response to chemical cues from injured conspecifics in the livebearing fish, Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora","authors":"Alexandra G. Duffy,&nbsp;Jerald B. Johnson","doi":"10.1111/eth.13490","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13490","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Predator–prey dynamics have led to a strong selection of prey's ability to detect and respond to information about the risk environment. Further, intrinsic factors, such as sex, may cause prey to perceive and respond to information differently. Chemical alarm cues from injured conspecifics are a classic example of how prey have evolved to use publicly available information to shape their behavior and enhance fitness, yet sex-specific alarm reactions are rarely considered. The purpose of our study was to compare how males and females respond to conspecific chemical alarm cues in the livebearing fish species, <i>Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora</i>. Furthermore, we tested males and females from populations with a high- or low-predation environment. <i>Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora</i> showed strong alarm reactions, but contrary to our predictions, showed limited variation due to sex or predation environment. We found that males and females from both populations displayed lower activity levels and increased their swimming depth when exposed to an alarm cue, despite variable and consistent baseline behaviors among individuals. These data further contribute to our understanding of what factors shape the evolution of behavioral responses to chemical alarm cues in fishes.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141342836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Familiarity and social relationships in degus (Octodon degus)","authors":"Amber Thatcher,&nbsp;Nathan Insel","doi":"10.1111/eth.13487","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13487","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Degus (<i>Octodon degus</i>) are a highly gregarious species of caviomorph rodent native to South America. Kinship does not appear to play a role in degu social structure, and alloparenting is often observed between unrelated females. We hypothesize that female degus readily establish new, cooperative peer relationships. Here, we examined changes in dyadic behavior as individuals became more familiar, testing the prediction that interactions between female strangers would quickly resemble those of cagemates. Adult degus underwent a several week series of 20 min “reunion” social exposures, interleaving reunions with initial strangers and, as a control, familiar cagemates. Males showed initially higher levels of interaction with strangers that converged with cagemate levels over experience. Females could be split into two groups: those that consistently interacted more with strangers (SC-HIGH) and those that did not (SC-LOW); however, unlike males, the higher interaction levels observed between strangers did not change with familiarity. Following 10 reunion sessions female strangers were housed together to create “new cagemates.” Even after co-housing, SC-HIGH (but not SC-LOW) females continued to interact more with the relatively unfamiliar peer than their prior cagemate, particularly in face-to-face and rear-sniffing interactions. A final set of reunions with new strangers found that individual differences in female responses to social novelty were preserved. These results reveal sex differences in the rules relating familiarization to social relationships in degus, and that female predispositions toward cooperation may be due to inherent responses to new individuals more than to how they negotiate relationships over time.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13487","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141267853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adult poison dart frogs avoid potential heterospecific competitors using their sense of smell","authors":"Elisa Schulze,&nbsp;Konrad Lipkowski,&nbsp;Diana Abondano Almeida,&nbsp;Lisa M. Schulte","doi":"10.1111/eth.13486","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13486","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Olfaction is the oldest sense in the animal kingdom. It is used during a multitude of behaviours, such as the encounter of food, the detection of predators, the recognition of habitat-related cues or the communication with conspecifics. While the use of olfaction and chemical communication has been studied widely in some animals, it is barely known in others. Anurans (frogs and toads), for example, are well known to use acoustic and visual senses, but their chemical sense is still largely understudied. Studies concerning the chemical sense in anurans have been mostly based on the use of semiochemicals in juvenile stages, while the information on adult anurans remains limited. In this study, we analysed the behavioural response of the Neotropical poison frog <i>Ranitomeya sirensis</i> (Sira poison frog, Dendrobatidae) when presented with the odours of prey, novel/prey-luring fruit, habitat, conspecific faeces and heterospecifics. For this, we offered each of the odours by placing them into one of two testing tubes fixed in an arena, with the other tube left empty as a control. We then measured the time the frogs spent in the vicinity of the odour versus the control tube and calculated a response index. While the frogs did not show a significant avoidance or attraction towards most of the tested odours, they showed a strong response towards the heterospecific odour, which was significantly avoided. This is the first evidence of a poison dart frog responding towards the odours of adult heterospecific frogs. We consider potential reasons for this strong negative reaction, such as the interspecific competition avoidance hypothesis, and discuss our results in the context of other animal species being deterred or attracted by heterospecific chemical cues.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13486","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141194771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Herbicide changes the role of body condition in mating interactions of a wolf spider but courtship is primarily affected by female immunity","authors":"Jake A. Godfrey,&nbsp;Katrina Culbertson,&nbsp;Megan Archdeacon,&nbsp;Ann L. Rypstra","doi":"10.1111/eth.13473","DOIUrl":"10.1111/eth.13473","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Animals that live in human-impacted landscapes experience an onslaught of novel stimuli that may interfere with natural communication pathways. During mating, this interference may alter the criteria deployed to assess potential mates as males and females find they must shift their focus and emphasize alternative sensory modalities. The wolf spider, <i>Tigrosa helluo</i> (Araneae, Lycosidae) is common in agricultural fields where commercial formulations of herbicides with glyphosate as the active ingredient are regularly applied. With the development of genetically resistant crops, glyphosate-based herbicides have become among the most widely used and heavily applied agricultural chemicals in the world. In a laboratory experiment, we explored the effects of this herbicide on male—female interactions during courtship, mating, and sexual cannibalism. We expected that it might impact assessment such that there was a shift in the features that were important to the outcome of mating interactions. When herbicide was present, female body condition, an indication of recent feeding success, became important to mating success. This result was, in part, due to higher rates of sexual cannibalism in parings of males and females with low body condition values. The leg raises and pedipalp waves that males perform in courtship were not affected by herbicide nor were they related to mating success but, across all treatments, they were negatively correlated with lytic activity of females as measured just prior to pairing. This result indicates that males detected this aspect of the female's physiology and that a strong immune response made the female less attractive, possibly because it indicated a current or recent infection. Taken together, these results verify that a common herbicide shifts mating criteria used by an agribiont spider and, separate from the herbicide, the immune status of females affects the reactions of courting males.</p>","PeriodicalId":50494,"journal":{"name":"Ethology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eth.13473","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141147091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}