Meeting Abstract

P3.16  Sunday, Jan. 6  Urine as a Signal of Dominance WOLF, MG*; MARTIN III, AL; Saginaw Valley State University; Saginaw Valley State University mgwolf@svsu.edu

Social relationships can be obtained through agonistic interactions between two or more conspecifics. These encounters can result in the development of a status that signifies the animal as being a dominant or subordinate individual. The establishment of dominance can influence the outcome of future bouts which in turn can influence the availability and access to resources such as food, shelter, and mates. Aggressive bouts between conspecifics can include both physical and non-physical behaviors. Chemical signals, such as odors, have been shown to be a common mechanism for non-physical communication. It is proposed that urine released during agonistic bouts is the odor that influences the outcome of agonistic interactions in the model crayfish. Dominant and subordinant status in male crayfish, Orconectus rusticus, will be established through agonistic encounters. Once social status has been established, urine will be collected from each individual for a 24 hour period and stored fresh. Playback experiments will be conducted to test the affect of the urine on naïve crayfish and also both dominant and subordinate crayfish. The crayfish’s agonistic response to the urine will be video recorded and analyzed according to known algorithms for aggression. This will assess whether urine is the signal of dominance and also lead to further research into the chemicals that compose the urine to better understand the mechanism which elicits aggressive responses. There are interesting questions that will need to be addressed in the chemical composition and the behavioral response that status specific urine elicits.