Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information
Memorizing dominance relationships can help animals avoid unwinnable subsequent contests. However, when competitive ability changes over time—for example, as a function of condition—it may be adaptive to “forget” these dominance relationships and for subordinates to once again enter contests with pr...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.685907/full |
| _version_ | 1819111362692907008 |
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| author | Takashi Hotta Takashi Hotta Satoshi Awata Lyndon A. Jordan Lyndon A. Jordan Masanori Kohda |
| author_facet | Takashi Hotta Takashi Hotta Satoshi Awata Lyndon A. Jordan Lyndon A. Jordan Masanori Kohda |
| author_sort | Takashi Hotta |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Memorizing dominance relationships can help animals avoid unwinnable subsequent contests. However, when competitive ability changes over time—for example, as a function of condition—it may be adaptive to “forget” these dominance relationships and for subordinates to once again enter contests with previously dominant individuals. Here, we examined the behavior of pairs of male cichlid fish, Julidochromis transcriptus, in repeated contests separated by different time intervals. We found that the time taken to reach resolution of dominance relationships influenced subsequent aggressive behavior of the subordinate toward the dominant, with longer initial contests leading to higher subsequent aggression. Longer time intervals between contests also increased aggression from the subordinate toward the dominant. These results are consistent with increasing uncertainty due to ambiguous contest outcomes and increasing time intervals. Our results also show that a longer time was necessary to resolve contests between larger pairs, suggesting a self-assessment strategy, but not a mutual assessment strategy. Taken together, larger individuals appear to adaptively lose or ignore previously gathered social information because they have a higher fighting ability and better body condition. Therefore, we conclude that losing or ignoring unreliable information may be an adaptive strategy in the context of dominance relationships. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T03:56:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4b22d5c841cb4d71b25224c1b36b650b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T03:56:25Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-4b22d5c841cb4d71b25224c1b36b650b2022-12-21T18:39:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2021-09-01910.3389/fevo.2021.685907685907Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest InformationTakashi Hotta0Takashi Hotta1Satoshi Awata2Lyndon A. Jordan3Lyndon A. Jordan4Masanori Kohda5Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanDepartment of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, JapanDepartment of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz, GermanyDepartment of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, JapanMemorizing dominance relationships can help animals avoid unwinnable subsequent contests. However, when competitive ability changes over time—for example, as a function of condition—it may be adaptive to “forget” these dominance relationships and for subordinates to once again enter contests with previously dominant individuals. Here, we examined the behavior of pairs of male cichlid fish, Julidochromis transcriptus, in repeated contests separated by different time intervals. We found that the time taken to reach resolution of dominance relationships influenced subsequent aggressive behavior of the subordinate toward the dominant, with longer initial contests leading to higher subsequent aggression. Longer time intervals between contests also increased aggression from the subordinate toward the dominant. These results are consistent with increasing uncertainty due to ambiguous contest outcomes and increasing time intervals. Our results also show that a longer time was necessary to resolve contests between larger pairs, suggesting a self-assessment strategy, but not a mutual assessment strategy. Taken together, larger individuals appear to adaptively lose or ignore previously gathered social information because they have a higher fighting ability and better body condition. Therefore, we conclude that losing or ignoring unreliable information may be an adaptive strategy in the context of dominance relationships.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.685907/fulladaptive forgetting theorycichlidcontest durationJulidochromis transcriptusmemoryself-assessment |
| spellingShingle | Takashi Hotta Takashi Hotta Satoshi Awata Lyndon A. Jordan Lyndon A. Jordan Masanori Kohda Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution adaptive forgetting theory cichlid contest duration Julidochromis transcriptus memory self-assessment |
| title | Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information |
| title_full | Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information |
| title_fullStr | Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information |
| title_full_unstemmed | Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information |
| title_short | Subordinate Fish Mediate Aggressiveness Using Recent Contest Information |
| title_sort | subordinate fish mediate aggressiveness using recent contest information |
| topic | adaptive forgetting theory cichlid contest duration Julidochromis transcriptus memory self-assessment |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.685907/full |
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