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Culbert BM, Barnett JB, Ligocki IY, Salena MG, Wong MYL, Hamilton IM, Balshine S. Colorful facial markings are associated with foraging rates and affiliative relationships in a wild group-living cichlid fish. Curr Zool 2024; 70:70-78. [PMID: 38476131 PMCID: PMC10926260 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/11/2022] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Many animals use color to signal their quality and/or behavioral motivations. Colorful signals have been well studied in the contexts of competition and mate choice; however, the role of these signals in nonsexual, affiliative relationships is not as well understood. Here, we used wild social groups of the cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher to investigate whether the size of a brightly colored facial patch was related to 1) individual quality, 2) social dominance, and/or 3) affiliative relationships. Individuals with larger patches spent more time foraging and tended to perform more aggressive acts against conspecific territory intruders. We did not find any evidence that the size of these yellow patches was related to social rank or body size, but dominant males tended to have larger patches than dominant females. Additionally, patch size had a rank-specific relationship with the number of affiliative interactions that individuals engaged in. Dominant males with large patches received fewer affiliative acts from their groupmates compared to dominant males with small patches. However, subordinates with large patches tended to receive more affiliative acts from their groupmates while performing fewer affiliative acts themselves. Taken together, our results suggest that patch size reflects interindividual variation in foraging effort in this cichlid fish and offer some of the first evidence that colorful signals may shape affiliative relationships within wild social groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brett M Culbert
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
| | - James B Barnett
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Isaac Y Ligocki
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
- Department of Biology, Millersville University, Millersville, PA, USA
| | - Matthew G Salena
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marian Y L Wong
- School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ian M Hamilton
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
- Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Sigal Balshine
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Reddon AR, Aubin‐Horth N, Reader SM. Wild guppies from populations exposed to higher predation risk exhibit greater vasotocin brain gene expression. J Zool (1987) 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- A. R. Reddon
- School of Biological and Environmental Sciences Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool UK
- Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada
| | - N. Aubin‐Horth
- Département de Biologie et Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes Université Laval Quebec City Québec Canada
| | - S. M. Reader
- Department of Biology McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada
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