Meeting Abstract

P3.20  Monday, Jan. 6 15:30  Winning Influences Aggression and Singing Behavior in Neotropical Mice GEORGE, A/S*; PHELPS, S/M; University of Texas at Austin; University of Texas at Austin 13ageorge@gmail.com

The winner effect is known to modulate behaviors in a wide variety of taxa, ranging from dominance hierarchies in fishes to male-male singing behaviors in song birds. We examine the effect of winning social encounters on the aggressive and singing behaviors of Alston’s singing mice, Scotinomys teguina. The singing mice, genus Scotinomys, are found in the cloud forests of Central America. They emit elaborate frequency-modulated trills ranging from 15-50 kHz which are used in male-male competition and mate attraction. Previous field studies have shown that responses of S. teguina to songs of a dominant congener, S. xerampelinus, differ in sympatry and allopatry. We hypothesize that S. teguina modulates song based on aggressive experience with either conspecifics or heterospecifics. Here, using a resident-intruder paradigm, we explore the behavioral differences following winning and losing social encounters within S. teguina. We recorded the spontaneous singing behavior of aggressively naïve male S. teguina, as well as their singing in response to noise, to song and to female bedding. Males sang in all four conditions, but sang most in response to conspecific song. Next, we assigned males either resident or intruder status and staged daily aggression tests for four days. We found an increase in aggression among residents across trials. Following aggressive experience, we found residents sang more, but this increase in song rates was not specific to responses to conspecific song. Our results suggest individual and population differences in song may reflect the role of recent aggressive experience.