Behavioral Ecology最新文献

Animals influence the phenotype and reproductive success of their conspecifics through competitive interactions. Such effects of competition can alter the intensity of selection and ultimately change the rate of evolution. However, the magnitude of the effects of competition, and their evolutionary impact, should vary depending on environmental conditions and individual responses among competitors. We tested whether a key environmental variable, resource availability, affects the response to competition in black widow spiders by manipulating access to prey and the level of competition. We examined if focal spiders modify their web structure and aggressiveness towards prey stimuli when a competitor is present, and whether these responses depend on prior prey access. We also tested if any effects of competition vary with individual differences among competitors. Access to resources changed how individuals respond to competition. Spiders with limited access to prey were less likely to attack prey stimuli in the presence of a conspecific competitor than spiders with greater access to prey, suggesting that limiting resources hinders competitive responses. In contrast, all spiders built better-protected webs in the presence of competitors, regardless of prior access to prey. Crucially, these responses differed among focal spiders and depended on individual competitors. Our findings highlight the importance of environmental conditions and individual differences in mediating the impact of social interactions on phenotypes and eventually on their evolution.

Animals can change their body color for various ecological functions. In fish, rapid dynamic color change is primarily known in contexts of intraspecific communication and camouflage, while examples in interspecific contexts are rare. We studied dynamic color changes and their associated behaviors in the grouper Variola louti in its native coral reef environment in the Red Sea. Using underwater videos to record natural behaviors and color-calibrated still images to measure body colors, we quantified color displays as the brightness of the body and the contrast of three distinct patterns: body patches, head stripe, and side bars. V. louti exhibited a diverse range of pattern displays, which rapidly transformed according to its behavioral shifts. A high-contrast head stripe pattern was observed when V. louti engaged in agonistic interspecific interactions, but was interestingly absent when hunting alone or in cooperation with moray eels. The brightness of V. louti's body color and the contrasts of the body patches and side bars were associated with its swimming behavior. Darker body colors and high contrast body patches and side bars were expressed when the fish rested on the bottom, whereas bright and uniform body colors were displayed when swimming higher above the reef. Our results suggest that V. louti utilizes dynamic color displays for camouflage and interspecific communication in agonistic and competitive interspecific interactions. These findings highlight the importance of dynamic color changes for communication and provide valuable insights into the behavioral ecology of animals.

Nest fumigation behavior involves the incorporation of fresh green plant fragments that contain ectoparasite-repellent volatile compounds into birds' nests. This behavior is relatively rare among bird species, and there is ongoing debate about whether it benefits parental breeding success. In this study, we experimentally tested whether the inclusion of aromatic-herbal plant fragments in the nests of great tits Parus major affects the physiological condition of nestlings, as indicated by blood levels of hematocrit, hemoglobin, glucose, and body condition indices, such as weight and wing length. We divided the nests into 2 groups, adding aromatic herbs to the test group's nests and non-aromatic plants to the control group. After the nestlings fledged, all nest materials were collected to extract, identify, and count arthropod ectoparasites. Nestlings in nests supplemented with aromatic plant fragments had elevated levels of hematocrit and hemoglobin, indicating improved physiological condition compared to the control group. Ectoparasites were present in both groups, although ticks (Ixodidae) occurred less frequently in nests with aromatic plants. The experimental treatment did not affect fledging success. Further experimental studies are needed to explore the effects of incorporating aromatic plant fragments into tit nests within the frameworks of both the nest protection hypothesis and the drug hypothesis.

Sperm competition is known to favor the evolution of male traits that confer an advantage in gaining fertilizations when females mate multiply. Ejaculate production can be costly and the strategic allocation of sperm in relation to the sperm competition environment is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon. However, variation among males in their ability to adjust ejaculate allocation has rarely been explored. Here, we manipulated the phenotypic condition of male seed beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus, via larval diet quality and measured ejaculate allocation across varying levels of sperm competition manipulated using olfactory cues. Furthermore, we asked how strategic ejaculation was impacted by previous ejaculation. We found no variation in ejaculate allocation in response to experimentally manipulated cues to sperm competition. Ejaculate allocation was reduced by a male's previous mating history but was unaffected by the larval diets on which males were reared. We suggest that either male seed beetles are unable to adjust ejaculate size to the immediate competitive environment, or that sperm displacement strategies employed by males favor maximal investment at all mating events, especially when unmated females are infrequently encountered. As our study is one of few to examine condition dependence in strategic ejaculation, emphasis should be placed on future studies investigating this possibility across a wider range of taxa and animal mating systems.

Sexual communication often takes place in networks with multiple competing signalers being simultaneously assessed by mate choosers. Altered sensory conditions, such as noise and light pollution, can affect communication by altering signal production and perception. While evidence of sensory pollution affecting sexual signaling is widespread, few studies assess impacts on sexual signaling during rival interactions as well as mate choice, let alone whether urban and non-urban populations have diverged in their response. Here, we investigate the effects of urban sensory conditions on sexual communication in urban and forest túngara frogs (Engystomops pustulosus). We recorded dyadic vocal rival interactions and assessed mate choice with and without noise and light pollution in the lab. We show that urban sensory conditions can directly impact the intensity of rival interactions, differences between rivals, and mate choice, though changes were often in opposite directions for frogs of urban and forest origins. Moreover, we demonstrate that urban-induced changes in rival interactions can also indirectly affect how females choose between potential mates. Our study reveals origin-dependent direct and indirect effects of noise and light pollution and suggests local adaptation of sexual communication in urban populations.

Immune defense is fundamental to diminish the negative effects of the attack of infectious agents, yet the activation of the immune system entails costs and may compromise other life-history traits such as reproduction. In reproductive brown booby pairs (Sula leucogaster), we experimentally imposed an immune challenge during incubation, by intraperitoneally injecting Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in either the male or the female. We aimed to test whether activation of the immune response results in (1) an increase in oxidative stress parameters, (2) a decline in post-hatching parental care in the treated individual, and (3) a compensation of the post-hatching parental effort by the nontreated mate. We found that activation of the immune response during incubation did not increase oxidative damage to lipids or total antioxidant capacity. However, mounting an immune response compromised parental effort during the chick-rearing period: compared to controls, LPS-treated parents showed roughly a 50% decline in the rate of preening and offspring feeding in response to begging. Interestingly, mates of LPS-treated parents increased their feeding rate suggesting parental care compensation. According to a scenario of full compensation, the decline in parental effort of LPS-treated parents did not result in poorer offspring growth or immune response, or increased levels of oxidative stress parameters. These findings suggest that in a long-lived species with long-lasting biparental care, an immune challenge compromises parental care, favoring parental compensation as a strategy to mitigate costs in terms of offspring success.

The marine environment is increasingly subject to changes driven by anthropogenic stressors which may alter species' key behaviors and impact phenotypic plasticity. Such stressors rarely occur in isolation, yet our understanding of how simultaneous stresses affect marine organisms is limited. Here, we study the combined impacts of a major global stressor, temperature increase, and a local stressor, anthropogenic noise, upon key defensive traits of the shore crab, Carcinus maenas. We tested the color change and behavioral responses of crabs in relatively colder and warmer water, and in the presence of natural ambient or ship noise. Using image analysis and a model of predator vision, we demonstrate that crabs change color, and improve camouflage, fastest in warmer water in the absence of anthropogenic noise. When anthropogenic noise was present, it adversely impacted crab color change and camouflage, to the extent that the accelerated change due to temperature was negated. In addition, anthropogenic noise affected C. maenas' behavior, reducing the likelihood and increasing the latency of antipredator response to stimuli. This reveals an interaction between the 2 stressors, with the combination of temperature and noise eliciting different biological responses compared with the effects of each stressor in isolation. Our study demonstrates how such interactions between anthropogenic stressors may impact marine life.

When making decisions about resource use, social species must integrate not only environmental factors but also the influence of opportunities and costs associated with group living. Bigger groups are expected to move further and to need access to larger areas for adequate food acquisition, but the relationships with group size can vary seasonally and with reproductive stage. Shelters are often more consistent in availability than food, but their use relates to factors such as predator defense and parasite transmission that are themselves influenced by group size and seasonality. Here, we used long-term data to investigate resource use and associated movement in a wild population of dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula). We found that bigger groups occupied larger home ranges, moved larger daily distances and covered more daily area than smaller ones, while environmental greenness (measured by normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI]) influenced daily movements in the breeding season but not the non-breeding season. Both assessed axes of seasonality also had pronounced effects on shelter use: mongoose groups used more unique sleeping burrows, and switched between burrows more often, in the breeding season, but also switched more when environmental greenness was higher. By investigating specific periods within the breeding season, we revealed the constraints that vulnerable, poorly mobile offspring impose on both group movements and burrow use, highlighting a potentially overlooked cost of reproduction. Our results show how both social and environmental factors can affect key resource-use decisions, demonstrating potential costs and benefits to group living within distinctly seasonal geographic areas.

Aposematic signals warn predators that prey should be avoided due to dangerous secondary defences. However, as warning signals do not always produce avoidance, warning colors may evolve as a trade-off balancing detectability against signal saliency. For Batesian mimics, which display salient signals but lack secondary defenses, the costs of predator encounters are greater, potentially increasing the benefit of crypsis. This raises the question of whether imperfect mimicry may reduce detectability while retaining mimetic efficacy. We tested this hypothesis with the poisonous frog Ameerega bilinguis and undefended Batesian mimic Allobates zaparo, using computational visual modeling and screen-based detection trials with human participants. We found that both species incorporate camouflage into their warning colors, but to different degrees depending on viewing angle and behavior. Contrary to expectation, we found differences in detectability between model and mimic that do not adhere to the hypothesized cryptic mimetic phenotype. To aerial observers, we found the mimic to be more detectable than the model. To terrestrial observers, likely owing to the model's bright ventral color, we found the model more detectable in viewing angles that highlight the ventral coloration, whereas the mimic was more detectable in viewing angles that highlight the dorsal coloration. Consequently, we suggest that in addition to being the result of perceptual or developmental constraints, imperfect mimicry may also evolve as an adaptive strategy which balances camouflage with different signaling functions. Our findings complement the emerging view that aposematic signals may evolve in response to a multitude of selection pressures beyond aversion alone.

Females of some species improve their reproductive success not only by being choosy and selecting males with certain traits, but also by sequentially mating with multiple males within one reproductive season. However, it is relatively unknown whether females also evaluate parental care during mate choice and, if they do, whether males actively communicate their care status to approaching females. We monitored a natural population of the glassfrog Hyalinobatrachium valerioi, a species with sequential polyandry and paternal care, to assess the role of parental care and advertisement calling on male mating success. Using field observations and acoustic analysis, we found that even in this species which has single-note calls, variations in call parameters allow for individual discrimination. Calling was strongly associated with mating success in H. valerioi males. Males with longer calls achieved the highest total mating success over the entire study period, indicating that females might have a preference for longer calls. Moreover, active calling and the presence of clutches were both linked to male mating success on a given night, although we cannot fully exclude that the link between presence of clutches and mating success is due to attractive call features alone. Call parameters differed between males when they were calling on top of their clutches, compared to sitting on the leaf directly, which might provide reliable cues about parental state to approaching females. These findings demonstrate the prominent role of acoustic communication and female choice in a species with male parental care and sequential polyandry.