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Related Experiment Videos

Residency effects in animal contests.

Darrell J Kemp1, Christer Wiklund

  • 1Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden. darrell.kemp@zoologi.su.se

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|August 13, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Residency does not arbitrarily settle territorial disputes in the speckled wood butterfly. Instead, aggressive males with prior winning experience secure residency, challenging the coin-toss model of contest evolution.

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Game theory

Background:

  • Territorial residents often win owner-intruder contests, leading to theories of arbitrary contest settlement.
  • Game theory proposes residency as a potential arbitrary cue for resolving contests, like a coin toss.
  • Previous studies on the speckled wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) provided empirical support for this, but results were controversial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To conclusively determine if residency acts as an arbitrary cue in owner-intruder contests in Pararge aegeria.
  • To investigate alternative explanations for contest success, such as resource-correlated asymmetries.
  • To understand the true drivers of contest settlement in animal behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted manipulative experiments on two phenotypically divergent populations of Pararge aegeria.
  • Tested the hypothesis that residency is an arbitrary settlement cue.
  • Ruled out resource-correlated asymmetries, specifically thoracic temperature, as a determining factor.

Main Results:

  • Residency was conclusively shown not to be an arbitrary cue for contest settlement in Pararge aegeria.
  • Resource-correlated asymmetries, including thoracic temperature, did not explain contest outcomes.
  • Intrinsically aggressive males with prior winning experience were found to accumulate as residents.

Conclusions:

  • Arbitrary contest settlement based on residency may be rare or non-existent in wild animal populations.
  • Contest success in Pararge aegeria is driven by intrinsic aggression and the self-reinforcing effects of winning.
  • This study challenges established game theory models of animal contest evolution.

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