Meeting Abstract

P2.195  Saturday, Jan. 5  Successful Sage-grouse Show Greater Laterality in Social Behaviors KRAKAUER, A.H.*; BLUNDELL, M.; SCANLAN, T.; WECHSLER, M.; MCCLOSKEY, E.; YU, J.; PATRICELLI, G.L.; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis; Univ. of California, Davis ahkrakauer@ucdavis.edu

Lateral biases in behaviors are common across animals. Greater lateralization may be beneficial (e.g., if it allows for more efficient neural processing), yet few studies have considered the possible importance of inter-individual variation in lateral biases in wild animals, particularly for social behaviors. We examined lateral biases in lekking male greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a species with obviously lateral orientations during aggressive and courtship interactions and in which male mating success can readily be measured. In both agonistic “facing-past events” and courtship “strut” displays, successful males showed greater bias. The greater resolution of angular orientation in our courtship data revealed that bias depended on the region of the visual field being used; struts were left biased in the frontal hemifield and right-biased in the lateral hemifield. Our results suggest that more successful males were more lateralized, although variation in social context and portion of the visual field being used are also important to consider.