Environmental and genetic effects on exploratory behavior of high- and low-predation guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

Exploratory behavior—an individual's response to novel environments, resources, or objects—should vary with the associated benefits, including new sources of food and reduced levels of competition, and the costs, such as predation pressure. Using guppies from multiple streams and rivers in Trin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 2016-08, Vol.70 (8), p.1187-1196
Main Authors: Burns, James G., Price, Anna C., Thomson, James D., Hughes, Kimberly A., Rodd, F. Helen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal Ecology
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Conspecifics
Creeks & streams
Fish
Genetic effects
Genetics
Life Sciences
Original Article
Poecilia reticulata
Predation
Predators
Rivers
Zoology
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Summary:Exploratory behavior—an individual's response to novel environments, resources, or objects—should vary with the associated benefits, including new sources of food and reduced levels of competition, and the costs, such as predation pressure. Using guppies from multiple streams and rivers in Trinidad, we compared guppies from high- and low-predation populations. We found that wild-caught male and female guppies from low-predation populations were more exploratory than high-predation fish when tested in the field and in controlled laboratory conditions. We did not detect significant evidence for a genetic basis for differences in the behavior of high- and low-predation fish using a common-garden approach, but further study is required before conclusions can be made about the relative contribution of genes to population differences in exploratory behavior of guppies. Theory has assumed that predation risk is a cost that will select against high levels of exploratory behavior; this study is one of the few that has tested this assumption, and we show that exploratory behavior is indeed suppressed in guppies from highpredation localities.
ISSN:0340-5443
1432-0762
DOI:10.1007/s00265-016-2127-x