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- Title
Effects of age and experience on contest behavior in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides.
- Authors
Lee, Victoria E.; Head, Megan L.; Carter, Mauricio J.; Royle, Nick J.
- Abstract
Aggression and likelihood of winning contests are expected to change as a male ages. We test this idea in burying beetles, a species which competes over small mammal carcasses as a breeding resource. We find that male size relative to his opponent is far more important in determining contest outcome than any effects of age or social experience.Contest behavior forms an important part of reproductive investment. Life-history theory predicts that as individuals age and their residual reproductive value decreases, they should increase investment in contest behavior. However, other factors such as social experience may also be important in determining age-related variation in contest behavior. To understand how selection acts on contest behavior over an individual’s lifetime, it is therefore important to tease apart the effects of age per se from other factors that may vary with age. Here, we independently manipulate male age and social experience to examine their effects on male contest behavior in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We found that social experience, but not age, influenced male contest behavior but that these changes in behavior did not alter contest outcomes. Male size (relative to his opponent) was overwhelmingly the most important factor determining contest outcome. Our results suggest that in systems with high variation in fighting ability among males, there may be little opportunity for selection to act on factors that influence contest outcomes by altering motivation to win.
- Subjects
BURYING beetles; COMPETITION (Biology); ANIMAL behavior; ANIMAL social behavior; INSECTS
- Publication
Behavioral Ecology, 2014, Vol 25, Issue 1, p172
- ISSN
1045-2249
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/beheco/art101