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Sexual Selection And Species Recognition Promote Complex Male Courtship Displays In Ungulates Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Giacomo D’Ammando, Jakob Bro-Jørgensen
Identifying the evolutionary drivers of sexual signal complexity is a key challenge in the study of animal communication. Among mammals, male bovids and cervids often perform elaborate gestural displays during courtship, consisting of ritualized movements of various parts of the body but the causes underlying interspecific variation in complexity of such displays remain poorly understood. Here we apply
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Small-scale land-use change effects on breeding success in a desert-living social bird Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Krista N Oswald, Oded Berger-Tal, Uri Roll
Human villages in deserts can provide resources in an otherwise stark environment, potentially buffering against extreme environmental conditions. It is thus expected that breeding within these villages would result in higher fitness. However, choosing to raise offspring in these resource-rich environments may have unintended negative consequences. Here, we studied the breeding success of a cooperative
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Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Zegni Triki, Tunhe Zhou, Elli Argyriou, Edson Sousa de Novais, Oriane Servant, Niclas Kolm
Some cognitive abilities are suggested to be the result of a complex social life, allowing individuals to achieve higher fitness through advanced strategies. However, most evidence is correlative. Here, we provide an experimental investigation of how group size and composition affect brain and cognitive development in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). For six months, we reared sexually mature females
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Vibrating aggression: spider males perform an unusual assessment strategy during contest displays Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 João Gabriel Lacerda de Almeida, Gareth Arnott, Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto
A recurrent question in animal contests is whether individuals adopt a self or mutual assessment rule to decide to withdraw from a contest. However, many empirical studies fail to find conclusive support for one of these two possibilities. A possible explanation is that assessment strategies vary between individuals. In the contests of the orb-web spider Trichonephila clavipes, males perform a vibrational
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Cognitive flexibility in a generalist raptor: a comparative analysis along an urbanization gradient Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 L M Biondi, A Medina, E A Bonetti, C A Paterlini, M S Bó
In this study, we analyzed the variation in cognitive flexibility in the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango), across areas with different levels of urbanization. To assess this, we utilized the reversal learning assay which measures the ability to adapt behavior in response to changes in environmental contingencies. We also investigated the impact of neophobia on this variation. All chimangos studied
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A variance partitioning approach for assessing mate choice and the sex controlling mating behaviour Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-29 Chang S Han, Hyoseul Hyun
Mating behaviour arises from interactions between males and females. The precopulatory stage includes various male and female mating behaviours that are potentially influenced (independently or jointly) by each sex, thereby shaping the dynamics of this stage. However, limited attention has been given to determining the relative contributions of males and females to the expression of precopulatory behaviours
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Sex-specific nest attendance rhythm and foraging habitat use in a colony-breeding waterbird Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Tamar Lok, Matthijs van der Geest, Petra de Goeij, Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Theunis Piersma
In most colony-breeding species, biparental care during both egg incubation and chick-rearing is inevitable for successful reproduction, requiring parents to coordinate their nest attendance and foraging time. The extent to which the rhythm of nest attendance is adjusted to temporal and spatial variation in food availability is poorly understood. Here we investigate whether the rhythm of nest attendance
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The matador bug’s elaborate flags deter avian predators Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Juliette J Rubin, Jorge L Medina-Madrid, Jay J Falk, Ummat Somjee
Large, conspicuous traits frequently evolve despite increased predator attention, but in some cases, specifically to attract attention. Sexually selected traits provide some of the clearest examples of elaboration, yet natural selection can also be a powerful driver. The matador bug, Anisoscelis alipes (Hemiptera: Coreidae), has large, colorful flags on its legs that, unlike many other coreid species
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Dietary tryptophan affects group behavior in a social bird Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Beatriz C Saldanha, Patrícia Beltrão, Ana Cristina R Gomes, Marta C Soares, Gonçalo C Cardoso, Sandra Trigo
The amino acid tryptophan (Trp) is precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Trp supplementation or other forms of serotonergic enhancement generally promote pro-social behavior, decreasing aggression and also feeding in different animals. However, past research has been conducted in confined spaces, and there is little work in naturalistic conditions where animals move and associate more freely
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Sex-dependent audience effect in foraging guppies Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Natalia Tepox-Vivar, Guadalupe Lopez-Nava, Juan H García-Chávez, Palestina Guevara-Fiore
The presence of bystanders can influence the behaviour of a forager, which has mainly been studied in primates and birds. We tested the effect of the absence and presence of an unfamiliar audience (females, males, and their combination) near or far from a food patch, on the foraging behaviour of guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Our investigation includes both males and females, recognising that different
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Sexual selection: competition for resources provided by mating partners Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Tim Janicke
Ever since Darwin’s pioneering work, the definition of sexual selection has been subject to recurrent controversies. The main focus of a more recent debate centers on whether or not sexual selection encompasses intra-sexual competition for resources other than gametes. Specifically, it has been proposed to define sexual selection as competition for access to gametes and to consider competition for
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Effects of early predation and social cues on the relationship between laterality and personality Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Paolo Panizzon, Jakob Gismann, Bernd Riedstra, Marion Nicolaus, Culum Brown, Ton Groothuis
Individual differences in laterality and personality are expected to covary, as emotions are processed differently by the two hemispheres and personality involves emotional behavior. Fish species are often used to investigate this topic due to the large variability in personality and laterality patterns. While some species show a positive relationship between lateralization strength and boldness, others
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Predator metamorphosis and its consequence for prey risk assessment Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Himal Thapa, Adam L Crane, Gabrielle H Achtymichuk, Sultan M M Sadat, Douglas P Chivers, Maud C O Ferrari
Living with a diverse array of predators provides a significant challenge for prey to learn and retain information about each predator they encounter. Consequently, some prey respond to novel predators because they have previous experience with a perceptually similar predator species, a phenomenon known as generalization of predator recognition. However, it remains unknown whether prey can generalize
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The ontogeny of social networks in wild great tits (Parus major) Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Sonja Wild, Gustavo Alarcón-Nieto, Lucy Aplin
Sociality impacts many biological processes and can be tightly linked to an individual’s fitness. To maximize advantages of group living, many social animals prefer to associate with individuals that provide the most benefits, such as kin, familiar individuals or those of similar phenotype. Such social strategies are not necessarily stable over time but can vary with changing selection pressures. In
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Born with an advantage: Early life and maternal effects on fitness in female ground squirrels Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Tanner Yuen, Kathreen E Ruckstuhl, April Robin Martinig, Peter Neuhaus
Lifetime fitness and its determinants are an important topic in the study of behavioural ecology and life-history evolution. Early life conditions comprise some of these determinants, warranting further investigation into their impact. In some mammals, babies born lighter tend to have lower life expectancy than those born heavier, and some of these life-history traits are passed on to offspring, with
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Interplay of cooperative breeding and predation risk on egg allocation and reproductive output Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Rita Fortuna, Rita Covas, Pietro B D’Amelio, Liliana R Silva, Charline Parenteau, Louis Bliard, Fanny Rybak, Claire Doutrelant, Matthieu Paquet
Predation risk can influence behaviour, reproductive investment and, ultimately, individuals’ fitness. In high-risk environments, females often reduce allocation to reproduction, which can affect offspring phenotype and breeding success. In cooperative breeders, helpers contribute to feed the offspring, and groups often live and forage together. Helpers can therefore improve reproductive success, but
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Flexible females: nutritional state influences biparental cooperation in a burying beetle Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-24 Georgia A Lambert, Per T Smiseth
In species that provide biparental care, there is sexual conflict between parents over how much each should contribute towards caring for their joint offspring. Theoretical models for the resolution of this conflict through behavioral negotiation between parents assume that parents cannot assess their partner’s state directly but do so indirectly by monitoring their partner's contribution. Here, we
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No geographical differences in male mate choice in a widespread fish, Limia perugiae Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Chance Powell, Ingo Schlupp
Behavior, like most other traits, can have a spatial component and variability of behavior at the population level is predicted. In the present paper we explore male mate choice at this level. Male mate choice, while maybe not as common as female choice, is expected to evolve when males respond to significant variation in female quality and for example prefer females with higher fecundity. In fishes
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Parental overproduction allows siblicidal bird to adjust brood size to climate-driven prey variation Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Iván Bizberg-Barraza, Cristina Rodríguez, Hugh Drummond
Parental overproduction is hypothesized to hedge against uncertainty over food availability and stochastic death of offspring, and to improve brood fitness. Understanding the evolution of overproduction requires quantifying its benefits to parents across a wide range of ecological conditions, which has rarely been done. Using a multiple hypotheses approach and 30 years of data, we evaluated the benefits
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Sensory trap leads to reliable communication without a shift in nonsexual responses to the model cue Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Skye D Fissette, Tyler J Buchinger, Sonam Tamrakar, Anne M Scott, Weiming Li
The sensory trap model of signal evolution suggests that males manipulate females into mating using traits that mimic cues used in a nonsexual context. Despite much empirical support for sensory traps, little is known about how females evolve in response to these deceptive signals. Female sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) evolved to discriminate a male sex pheromone from the larval odor it mimics and
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Inter- and intraspecific female behavioral plasticity drive temporal niche segregation in two Tribolium species Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-19 Miraim Benita, Ariel Menahem, Inon Scharf, Daphna Gottlieb
Temporal niche segregation is a way to reduce competition over shared resources. Species with overlapping spatial niches often show plasticity and can use different activity times to minimize competition with and disturbance by other species. In many granivores, especially those living in their food resources, there is low competition over food, but other selective forces can drive distinct temporal
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Effects of past mating behavior versus past ejaculation on male mate choice and male attractiveness Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Meng-Han Joseph Chung, Megan L Head, Rebecca J Fox, Michael D Jennions
Past reproductive effort allows males to assess their ability to acquire mates, but it also consumes resources that can reduce their future competitive ability. Few studies have examined how a male’s reproductive history affects his subsequent mate choice; and, to date, no study has determined the relative contribution of past mating behavior and past ejaculate production because these two forms of
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Low sex drive and choosy females: Fungal infections are a reproductive downfall for male house flies Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Sam Edwards, Eleanor Bath, Henrik H De Fine Licht
Many entomopathogenic fungi cause infections that kill their insect host. Little is understood about changes in the reproductive investment that occur during an infection by a lethal disease over the waning life of an insect. Life history theory suggests the host will respond by investing resources into fighting the disease or increasing reproduction. Here, we investigate how the reproductive life
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A new trophic specialization buffers a top predator against climate-driven resource instability Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Laura Gangoso, Duarte S Viana, Marina Merchán, Jordi Figuerola
Intraspecific phenotypic variability is key to respond to environmental changes and anomalies. However, documenting the emergence of behavioral diversification in natural populations has remained elusive due to the difficulty of observing such phenomenon at the right time and place. Here, we investigated how the emergence of a new trophic strategy in a population subjected to high fluctuations in the
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Population turnover, behavioural conservatism, and rates of cultural evolution Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Mark Dyble, Alberto J C Micheletti
Cultural evolution facilitates behavioural adaptation in many species. The pace of cultural evolution can be accelerated by population turnover where newcomers (immigrants or juvenile recruits) introduce adaptive cultural traits into their new group. However, where newcomers are naïve to the challenges of their new group, population turnover could potentially slow the rate of cultural evolution. Here
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Lunar synchrony, geography, and individual clocks shape autumn migration timing in an avian migrant Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Alicia M Korpach, Christina M Davy, Alex M Mills, Kevin C Fraser
Timing programs in animal migrants have been selected to synchronize movements that coincide with predictable resources on the breeding and nonbreeding grounds. Migrants face potential temporal conflicts if their migration schedules benefit from synchrony to conflicting rhythms associated with annual biogeographical (circannual) cues, lunar (circalunar) cues, or individually-repeatable internal clocks
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Wild bumblebees use both absolute and relative evaluation when foraging Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Claire T Hemingway, Smruti Pimplikar, Felicity Muth
Foraging theory assumes that animals assess value based on objective payoffs; however, animals often evaluate rewards comparatively, forming expectations based on recent experience. This form of evaluation may be particularly relevant for nectar foragers such as bumblebees, where individuals can visit thousands of flowers daily that vary in nectar quality. While many animals, including bees, demonstrate
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Temperature variability is associated with the occurrence of extrapair paternity in blue tits Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Aneta Arct, Rafał Martyka, Szymon M Drobniak, Lars Gustafsson, Mariusz Cichoń
In birds, extrapair paternity (EPP) constitutes an alternative mating strategy, with potentially important fitness consequences for both males and females and their offspring. Several factors have been identified that can influence the occurrence of EPP, but the role of environmental variability has so far received relatively little attention. Using long-term data set from a wild population of the
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Intrinsic and extrinsic factors modulating vigilance and foraging in two gregarious foragers Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Flavio Monti, Francesco Ferretti, Niccolò Fattorini
A continuous balance between costs and benefits dictates individual vigilance and foraging dynamics. In group-living animals, understanding the resulting trade-off is often complicated by multiple confounding effects. Vigilance and foraging levels may be the result of intrinsic (e.g., body size, trophic ecology, migratory phenology) and extrinsic (e.g., flock size, edge effect, group dynamism) factors
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Condition-transfer maternal effects modulate inter-locus sexual conflict Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Roberto García-Roa, Gonçalo S Faria, Daniel W A Noble, Pau Carazo
Strong sexual selection frequently favors males that increase their reproductive success by harming females, with potentially negative consequences for natural populations. Understanding what factors modulate conflict between the sexes is hence critical to understand both the evolution of male and female phenotypes and the viability of populations in the wild. Here, we model the evolution of male harm
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Exploration and social environment affect inbreeding avoidance in a small mammal Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-26 Katherine Vandal, Dany Garant, Patrick Bergeron, Denis Réale
Individual exploration types are based on the cognitive speed-accuracy trade-off, which suggests that a higher speed of information acquisition is done by sacrificing information quality. In a mating context, fast exploration could thus increase the probability of finding mates at the cost of mating with kin or suboptimal partners. We tested this hypothesis by studying male mate choice patterns in
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Machine learning reveals singing rhythms of male Pacific field crickets are clock controlled Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-23 Mary L Westwood, Quentin Geissmann, Aidan J O’Donnell, Jack Rayner, Will Schneider, Marlene Zuk, Nathan W Bailey, Sarah E Reece
Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous in nature and endogenous circadian clocks drive the daily expression of many fitness-related behaviors. However, little is known about whether such traits are targets of selection imposed by natural enemies. In Hawaiian populations of the nocturnally active Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus), males sing to attract mates, yet sexually selected singing rhythms
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Personality affects female mate choice: frogs displaying more consistent bold behaviors are choosier Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-23 Olivia S Feagles, Gerlinde Höbel
Mate choice is an important cause of natural and sexual selection and drives the evolution and elaboration of male ornaments. Yet mate choice decisions are often neither consistent nor uniform, and a range of factors have been identified to influence variation between and within individuals. A potential source of variation influencing preferences and/or choosiness is animal personality, that is, repeatable
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Transgenerational exposure to deoxygenation and warming disrupts mate detection in Gammarus locusta Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Beatriz P Pereira, Simon Neff, Francisco O Borges, Eve Otjacques, Guilherme Barreto, Maddalena Ranucci, Mélanie Court, Rui Rosa, Tiago Repolho, José Ricardo Paula
Ocean deoxygenation and warming have been shown to pose a growing threat to the health of marine organisms and ecosystems. Yet, the potential for acclimation and adaptation remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of transgenerational exposure to reduced oxygen availability and elevated seawater temperature on the chemosensory-dependent mating mechanisms of male
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Behavioral estimates of mating success corroborate genetic evidence for pre-copulatory selection Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Rachana S Bhave, Heidi A Seears, Aaron M Reedy, Tyler N Wittman, Christopher D Robinson, Robert M Cox
In promiscuous species, fitness estimates obtained from genetic parentage may often reflect both pre- and post-copulatory components of sexual selection. Directly observing copulations can help isolate the role of pre-copulatory selection, but such behavioral data are difficult to obtain in the wild and may also overlook post-copulatory factors that alter the relationship between mating success and
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Geographic variation in individual face learning based on plasticity rather than local genetic adaptation in Polistes wasps Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Meagan Simons, Delbert A Green, Elizabeth A Tibbetts
Signals and receiver responses often vary across a species’ geographic range. Effective communication requires a match between signal and receiver response, so there is much interest in the developmental mechanisms that maintain this link. Two potential mechanisms are genetic covariance between signal and receiver response and plasticity where individuals adjust their phenotype based on their partner’s
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Peregrine falcons shift mean and variance in provisioning in response to increasing brood demand Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Rebekah A McKinnon, Kevin Hawkshaw, Erik Hedlin, Shinichi Nakagawa, Kimberley J Mathot
The hierarchical model of provisioning posits that parents employ a strategic, sequential use of three provisioning tactics as offspring demand increases (e.g., due to increasing brood size and age). Namely, increasing delivery rate (reducing intervals between provisioning visits), expanding provisioned diet breadth, and adopting variance-sensitive provisioning. We evaluated this model in an Arctic
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Mutual mate guarding with limited sexual conflict in a sex-role-reversed shorebird Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Johannes Krietsch, Mihai Valcu, Margherita Cragnolini, Wolfgang Forstmeier, Bart Kempenaers
Mate guarding is typically considered a male strategy to protect paternity. However, under some circumstances, females might also benefit from guarding their mate. Female mate guarding might be particularly important in socially polyandrous species in which females compete for access to care-giving males. Because males also benefit from being near their partner to avoid paternity loss, pair members
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Multilevel Bayesian analysis of monk parakeet contact calls shows dialects between European cities Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-24 Simeon Q Smeele, Stephen A Tyndel, Lucy M Aplin, Mary Brooke McElreath
Geographic differences in vocalizations provide strong evidence for animal culture, with patterns likely arising from generations of social learning and transmission. Most studies on the evolution of avian vocal variation have predominantly focused on fixed repertoire, territorial song in passerine birds. The study of vocal communication in open-ended learners and in contexts where vocalizations serve
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Predator selection on multicomponent warning signals in an aposematic moth Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Liisa Hämäläinen, Georgina E Binns, Nathan S Hart, Johanna Mappes, Paul G McDonald, Louis G O’Neill, Hannah M Rowland, Kate D L Umbers, Marie E Herberstein
Aposematic prey advertise their unprofitability with conspicuous warning signals that are often composed of multiple color patterns. Many species show intraspecific variation in these patterns even though selection is expected to favor invariable warning signals that enhance predator learning. However, if predators acquire avoidance to specific signal components, this might relax selection on other
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Functional heterogeneity facilitates effectual collective task performance in a worker-polymorphic ant Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Takuto Sakai, Isaac Planas-Sitjà, Adam L Cronin
Effective coordination of group actions underlies the success of group-living organisms. Recent studies of animal personality have shown that groups composed of individuals with different behavioral propensities can outperform uniform groups in a range of different tasks, but we have only a rudimentary understanding of how differences in individual behavior influence the behavior of the group as a
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Sexually attractive traits predict predation-threat sensitivity of male alternative mating tactics Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Jean-Guy J Godin, Heather E McDonough, Thomas M Houslay
Although visual sexual signals, such as ornamental colors and courtship displays, and large body size in males are attractive to females in numerous species, they may also inadvertently attract the attention of eavesdropping predators and thus may be costly in terms of increasing individual risk of mortality to predation. Theoretically, more color ornamented and larger males should be more predation
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Social networks reveal sex- and age-patterned social structure in Butler’s gartersnakes (Thamnophis butleri) Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Morgan Skinner, Megan Hazell, Joel Jameson, Stephen C Lougheed
Sex- and age-based social structures have been well documented in animals with visible aggregations. However, very little is known about the social structures of snakes. This is most likely because snakes are often considered non-social animals and are particularly difficult to observe in the wild. Here, we show that wild Butler’s Gartersnakes have an age and sex assorted social structure similar to
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Food quantity and the intensity of the alarm signal combine to modulate the resource selection in a termite species Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Aline N F Silva, Cátila R Silva, Renan E C Santos, Carla C M Arce, Ana Paula A Araújo, Paulo F Cristaldo
Maximizing food intake while minimizing risk is an important trade-off in the foraging behavior of most animals. In general, foragers are vulnerable and the ability to trade off benefits (food quantity) against costs (risk of being killed) may provide a considerable ecological advantage. Despite the increasing number of studies, the effects of food quantity and mortality risk signals on resource selection
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Housework or vigilance? Bilbies alter their burrowing activity under threat of predation by feral cats Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Faith S E Chen, Stuart J Dawson, Patricia A Fleming
Behavioral adjustments to predation risk not only impose costs on prey species themselves but can also have cascading impacts on whole ecosystems. The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is an important ecosystem engineer, modifying the physical environment through their digging activity, and supporting a diverse range of sympatric species that use its burrows for refuge and food resources. The bilby
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Persistence associated with extractive foraging explains variation in innovation in Darwin’s finches Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-28 Paula Ibáñez de Aldecoa, Sabine Tebbich, Andrea S Griffin
The capacity to create new behaviors is influenced by environmental factors such as foraging ecology, which can lead to phylogenetic variation in innovativeness. Alternatively, these differences may arise due to the selection of the underlying mechanisms, collaterally affecting innovativeness. To understand the evolutionary pathways that might enhance innovativeness, we examined the role of diet breadth
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Social inheritance of avoidances shapes the structure of animal social networks Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-23 Celine H Frère, Barbara Class, Dominique A Potvin, Amiyaal Ilany
Social structure can have significant effects on selection, affecting both individual fitness traits and population-level processes. As such, research into its dynamics and evolution has spiked in the last decade, where theoretical and computational advances in social network analysis have increased our understanding of its ecological and inheritance underpinnings. Yet, the processes that shape the
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Spontaneous quantity discrimination in the Australian sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Birgit Szabo, Madeleine L Holmes, Benjamin J Ashton, Martin J Whiting
Animals employ quantitative abilities to gauge crucial aspects of their environment, such as food or predator density in a given area or the number of eggs in a nest. These quantitative skills hold ecological implications and can impact an animal’s fitness. However, our comprehension of how these abilities intersect with environmental challenges remains limited. We tested for spontaneous quantity discrimination
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Immune challenge changes social behavior in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Stella A Encel, Timothy M Schaerf, Ashley J W Ward
Increased exposure to pathogens is often considered to be one of the most significant costs of group living. As a result, animals typically avoid close association with individuals who manifest symptoms of disease. The question remains, however, whether avoidance behaviors are mediated by effects relating specifically to the disease itself, or through recognition of more general sickness behaviors
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Modeling effects of habitat structure on intraguild predation frequency and spatial coexistence between jaguars and ocelots Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-12 Sean Richards, Siria Gámez, Nyeema C Harris
Species within the same ecological guild exhibit niche attributes that vary in association with their diet, spatial occupancy, and temporal activity to reduce competition. In the case of the tropical felid community, many species exhibit substantial overlap in these niche dimensions. Consequently, jaguars (Panthera onca) will sometimes kill the smaller ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) competitor in a phenomenon
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Aggression rates increase around seasonally exploited resources in a primarily grass-eating primate Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-10-12 Julie C Jarvey, Bobbi S Low, Abebaw Azanaw Haile, Kenneth L Chiou, Noah Snyder-Mackler, Amy Lu, Thore J Bergman, Jacinta C Beehner, India A Schneider-Crease
Female social relationships are often shaped by the distribution of dietary resources. Socioecological models predict that females should form strict linear dominance hierarchies when resources are clumped and exhibit more egalitarian social structures when resources are evenly distributed. While many frugivores and omnivores indeed exhibit dominance hierarchies accompanied by differential resource
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Cumulative experience influences contest investment in a social fish Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-25 Macie D Benincasa, Ryan L Earley, Ian M Hamilton
When animals live in long-term groups, the potential for conflict is high. Conflict is costly, so an individual’s decision to engage depends on the information it has about the costs and benefits of fighting. One source of information could be past contest experience, where previous winners/losers typically become more likely to win/lose in the future. However, repeated interactions can familiarize
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Golden mimics use multiple defenses to counter generalist and specialist predators Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-24 Stano Pekár, Martin J Whiting, Marie E Herberstein
Many prey species employ multiple defenses during interactions with predators. Multiple defenses can provide a selective advantage against a single predator at different stages of the interaction or attack, as well as against multiple predator types. However, the efficacy of multiple defenses both during different sequences of an attack and against multiple predator types, remains poorly understood
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The impact of food availability on risk-induced trait responses in prey Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-24 Michael J Sheriff, Isabella Mancini, Olivia K Aguiar, Eleanor R DiNuzzo, Sophia Maloney-Buckley, Sam Sonnega, Sarah C Donelan
Prey respond to predation risk by altering their morphology, physiology, and behavior, responses that may come at a cost to prey foraging and growth. However, their perception of risk may depend upon the environmental context in which the interaction occurs. Here, we examined how food availability influenced prey’s responses to a nonlethal but free-ranging predator. We used an experimental mesocosm
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Competition for acoustic space in a temperate-forest bird community Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-24 Agata Staniewicz, Emilia Sokołowska, Adrianna Muszyńska, Michał Budka
Animals that communicate by acoustic signaling share a common acoustic environment. Birds are particularly vocal examples, using a wide repertoire of broadcast signals for mate attraction and territorial defense. However, interference caused by sounds that overlap in frequency and time can disrupt signal detection and reduce reproductive success. Here, we investigated competition avoidance mechanisms
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Early-life behavior, survival, and maternal personality in a wild marsupial. Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Weliton Menário Costa,Wendy J King,Timothée Bonnet,Marco Festa-Bianchet,Loeske E B Kruuk
Individual behavior varies for many reasons, but how early in life are such differences apparent, and are they under selection? We investigated variation in early-life behavior in a wild eastern gray kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) population, and quantified associations of behavior with early survival. Behavior of young was measured while still in the pouch and as subadults, and survival to weaning
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Food supply and provisioning behavior of parents: Are small hoopoe nestlings condemned to die? Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-12 Paula Ferrer-Pereira,Ester Martínez-Renau,Manuel Martín-Vivaldi,Juan José Soler
Parents might use signals of need or of quality to decide food provisioning among their offspring, while the use of one or another signal might depend on food availability. Begging success of nestlings of different quality (i.e., body size) would also depend on food availability, and we here explore the effect of experimental food supply in begging success of nestlings and in provisioning of female
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Female state and condition-dependent chemical signaling revealed by male choice of silk trails Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Michelle Beyer, Kardelen Özgün Uludağ, Cristina Tuni
Male mate choice is predicted in systems with high costs of mating, as for those with male nuptial gifts and/or sexual cannibalism. We ask whether males of the nuptial gift-giving spider Pisaura mirabilis exert preferences for mates varying in their reproductive potential based on chemical information during mate search. Males were presented with binary trails consisting of silk lines and substrate-borne
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Lack of intergenerational reproductive conflict, rather than lack of inclusive fitness benefits, explains absence of post-reproductive lifespan in long-finned pilot whales Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-08-29 Jack L McCormack, Kevin Arbuckle, Karen Fullard, William Amos, Hazel J Nichols
Life-history theory suggests that individuals should reproduce until death, yet females of a small number of mammals live for a significant period after ceasing reproduction, a phenomenon known as post-reproductive lifespan. It is thought that the evolution of this trait is facilitated by increasing local relatedness throughout a female’s lifetime. This allows older females to gain inclusive fitness
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Expression of trematode-induced zombie-ant behavior is strongly associated with temperature Behav. Ecol. (IF 2.4) Pub Date : 2023-08-25 Simone Nordstrand Gasque, Brian Lund Fredensborg
Parasite-induced modification of host behavior increasing transmission to a next host is a common phenomenon. However, field-based studies are rare, and the role of environmental factors in eliciting host behavioral modification is often not considered. We examined the effects of temperature, relative humidity (RH), time of day, date, and an irradiation proxy on behavioral modification of the ant Formica