Contextual use of male-male social information by Trinidadian guppies

Decision-making among prey often involves balancing fitness-related activities, such as foraging and mating, with the need to avoid predation. These trade-offs may be influenced by sex, especially among sexually dimorphic species where males and females face different selection pressures. Consistent with the 'Distracted Male Hypothesis', male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), may show a reduced response to publicly available personal risk assessment cues (i.e. chemosensory predation risk cues) relative to females due to the relatively high costs associated with lost courtship and mating opportunities. Male guppies may compensate for a reduced response to personal information by increasing their use of conspecifics as a source of social information. Here, we tested this hypothesis using wild-caught male Trinidadian guppies, examining their use of visual social cues from alarmed conspecific males in the presence vs. absence of females. We found that when stimulus females were absent, focal males increased their inspection of an alarmed male stimulus shoal, suggesting the use of social information. However, when a stimulus female was present, males did not increase inspection of the male stimulus shoal. Rather, they exhibited high rates of inspection towards the female stimulus. These suggest that male guppies may adjust their antipredator behaviour depending on social context, likely reflecting underlying reproductive trade-offs.