Courtship Display Persists Despite Early Social Deprivation
Courtship Display Persists Despite Early Social Deprivation
Early social experiences are known to influence the way individuals respond sexually later in life. Less is known, however, about how social deprivation at different early stages contributes to this effect. In order to fill this gap, Miguel Barbosa, Alfredo Ojanguren and Anne Magurran in a recently published paper in Ethology asked the question of how social deprivation at before or after 6 weeks mediates male mating behaviour in the Trinidadian guppy. Although, total social deprived individuals took longer to sexual respond than individuals socially deprived after sexual maturation, after 30 minutes all individual were sexually displaying. More importantly, the ability to adjust mating behaviour to current levels of sperm competition was not hindered by lack of social interaction during early stages. The short-lived nature of effects of social deprivation on mating behaviour reported in this study highlight the extraordinary innate plasticity of guppies, which is likely to contribute to their success as invasive species.
The paper “Courtship Display Persists Despite Early Social Deprivation”, DOI: 10.1111/eth.12087,
by Barbosa M, , Ojanguren A,., and Magurran AE. can be viewed in the current issue of Ethology
Contact details Miguel Barbosa