Meeting Abstract
Under conditions of limited resources, a variety of animals including green anoles form dominance hierarchies. How the novel demands imposed by acquisition and maintenance of social status modulate behavioral responses in dominants and subordinates is not well understood. Upon pairing, anoles form stable dominant-subordinate dyads after an initial aggressive interaction. We investigated how dominants and subordinates differed in their respective levels of aggression to a simulated intruder following cohabitation in a stable dominance hierarchy. Size-matched male anoles were tested for aggression before and after acquisition of their respective social status. Individually housed males were administered a mirror aggression test for 30 minutes in their home cage to determine baseline aggression levels. Size-matched animals were then paired and allowed to form dominant-subordinate hierarchies. After 7 days of cohabitation, the animals were subjected to a mirror aggression test for 30 minutes. The aggression test was administered in the home cage of the focal animal while the dominant or subordinate half of the pair was removed during the test. Number of head-bobs and pushups displayed to the mirror image of the animals were quantified together as total aggressive events. Aggression was not different before pairing (P=0.13) but after a week of cohabitation, subordinates showed lower number of aggressive events as opposed to dominant animals (P=0.012). Both dominants (P=0.013) and subordinates (P=0.037) showed a decline in the number of aggressive responses after pairing in comparison to the number of responses displayed by these same animals when individually housed. In conclusion, subordinate animals showed significantly lower aggressive responses to a simulated intruder compared to dominant animals, and the difference was not due to preexisting tendencies.
