Meeting Abstract
Animals engage in aggressive contests frequently as a result of competition over resources. In order to more accurately weigh costs and benefits of withdrawing from an agonistic encounter, participants need to gather relevant information about RHP. Theoretically, what information is used in this critical decision is dependent upon the social and environment context under which animals develop their social skills. The role that these two contexts (social and environmental) play in determining the winner of agonistic interactions was examined. Twenty-four hours to engagement in a staged, dyadic interaction, five male tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus X aureus) were placed into a treatment in which social composition and resource availability were altered (called priming). After this priming period, animals were paired to fight against size-matched opponents from either the same or different priming treatment. The results from these fights show that combatants from different priming treatments fought differently than those that experienced a similar context prior to engagement in an interaction. These results show that information acquisition and use varies due to social and environment conditions and that the type of assessment used to determine when to withdraw is variable within a species.
