Meeting Abstract

95.3  Sunday, Jan. 6  Sex and fighting: Male and female crayfish use different assessment strategies during agonistic behavior WOFFORD, SJ*; MOORE, PA; Bowling Green State University; Bowling Green State University sjwofford1@gmail.com

Agonistic behavior is an important social aspect of animal behavior, and the outcome of agonistic interactions is critical to the acquisition of resources such as food, shelter, and mating opportunities. During agonistic interactions, individual participants make behavioral decisions based on energy and time investment such as escalating the intensity of the interaction and whether to end the interaction by retreating. Each of these decisions can be informed through self-assessment (i.e. energy reserves, fight capability, size) or through some form of mutual assessment (i.e. comparative energy reserve, size differential). Crayfish are ideal model organisms for the study of such behavior due to ritualized fighting and a well –established ethogram. In this study, we are examining the assessment strategies that crayfish employ during same and mixed sex fights. After a brief acclimation, two individuals (male-male, female-female, or male-female) were allowed to interact for 15 minutes. Video analysis was used to calculate fight duration and times spent at various intensity levels. Analysis indicates that males and females appear to be using two different assessment strategies. In male-male fights, agonistic decisions are based on a self-assessment strategy whereas in female-female fights, decisions are based on a mutual assessment strategy. In mixed sex bouts, a mixed strategy appears to underlie a crayfish’s decision.