Meeting Abstract
Information obtained from the surrounding environment allows organisms to reduce uncertainty and influences behaviors with direct or indirect fitness consequences. Information plays a vital role in agonistic encounters with conspecifics. While contests enable the establishment of hierarchies that can provide exclusive or primary access to resources, the value of that resource should outweigh energy and time costs used to obtain it. This “cost-benefit analysis” or assessment strategy can be performed by gathering information about one’s own state (e.g. fighting ability, energy stores), about the resource (e.g. quality, availability), and (potentially) about an opponent (e.g. relative strength, size). Limited studies of female and mixed sex fighting behavior have shown that males and females differ in their fighting strategies. Some studies suggest that these differences lie in the source of information driving motivation in these contests. In order to elucidate mechanistic differences in the decision making paradigm (i.e. assessment strategy) used by males and females during contests, we compared the use of a quantifiable signal over different types of contests. Male and female crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) were injected with a fluorescent dye and then paired with a contestant of the same or opposite sex. The dye was used to visualize urine released from the individuals, a chemical signal with numerous implications for crayfish behavior. Contest videos were analyzed for the type of assessment strategy in use as well as any differences in the timing or duration of signal release. In line with expectations based on previous studies, we found that males and females appear to differ in assessment strategy. We also found that males and females use the signal of interest (urine) differently during agonistic contests.
