Living on the wedge: female control of paternity in a cooperatively polyandrous cichlid

Kohda, Masanori; Heg, Dik; Makino, Yoshimi; Takeyama, Tomohiro; Shibata, Jun-ya; Watanabe, Katsutoshi; Munehara, Hiroyuki; Hori, Michio; Awata, Satoshi

doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1175

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Julidochromis transcriptus is a species indigenous to Lake Tanganyika, Africa (Konings, 1996) and is a cooperatively breeding cichlid with a highly organized social system (Awata and Kohda, 2004;Awata et al, 2005;Heg and Bachar, 2006;Kohda et al, 2009), which may favor higher cognition. This fish can recall memories of social events after 5 days (Hotta et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Order effects in transitive inference: does the presentation order of social information affect transitive inference in social animals?

et al. 2015

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Transitive inference (TI) is the ability to infer social relationships between individuals (e.g., if A < B and B < C, then A < C), and has been documented in a variety of vertebrates. Many studies of TI use the task of inferring social dominance, where a subject animal A first directly interacts with B (e.g., A subordinate to B: A < B), and then indirectly observes the interaction of B and an unknown C (B < C), using both direct and indirect information to infer its own relationship with C (i.e., A < C). However, order effects are known to influence learning, especially in complex scenarios, and we have little understanding of the effects of presentation order in transitive inference. Here we show that the cichlid Julidochromis transcriptus can use TI to correctly assess social relationships when information is presented in the order opposite to that most commonly employed in studies of TI. We find that focal individuals (A) can transitively infer their relationships with an unknown individual (C) when initially given indirect experience (i.e., eavesdropping that B < C) and then given direct experience (A < B). We conclude that J. transcriptus can infer social relationships when experiencing first indirect and then direct social information. We suggest that in this and many other species, transitive inference may occur in either presentation order, and future studies of TI should account for order effects of social information.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Order effects in transitive inference: does the presentation order of social information affect transitive inference in social animals?

et al. 2015

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“…In systems in which individuals of one or both sexes mate with multiple partners, a conflict between the sexes over parentage is likely to arise. For instance, females may be selected to seek extra-pair mating partners offering good genes (Andersson 1994) or additional paternal care (Koenig and Dickinson 2004;Kohda et al 2009), and males may be selected to ensure full paternity of the brood through mating plugs, mate guarding, and female harassment (Birkhead and Møller 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male reproductive tactics to increase paternity in the polygynandrous Columbian ground squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus)

Raveh

Heg

Viblanc

et al. 2010

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In polyandrous and polygynandrous species where females mate with multiple partners, males are expected to maximize their fitness by exhibiting an array of reproductive behaviors to ensure fertilization success, such as competing for the best mating order within a mating sequence, optimizing their investment in copulation, and mate guarding. Though there is genetic evidence of a first-male precedence in siring success for many mammalian species, the causes of this effect are poorly understood. We studied influences on first-male precedence in Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus). We found that the time a male spent consorting and mate guarding declined with his mating order (both the highest for the first male to mate). Mate guarding by the first male significantly reduced, but did not exclude, the number of additional males a female accepted. Later mating males reduced the time spent consorting, suggesting a perceived decreased chance of fertilization success. Consortship and mate guarding durations were positively related to the male's siring success and to each other, suggesting that males adjusted these behaviors strategically to increase their chances of fertilization success. Our results suggest that besides being the first male to consort, first-male sperm precedence is further enhanced through longer mating bouts and by suppressing the chances and/or efforts of later mating males.

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“…Cooperatively breeding cichlids in Lake Tanganyika often have large groups associated with frequent social interactions with known and unknown individuals (e.g., Awata et al, 2005;Heg and Bachar, 2006;Wong and Balshine, 2010), which may favor the development of high cognitive abilities (e.g., Byrne and Whiten, 1988;Bond et al, 2003;Alfieri and Dugatkin, 2011). Julidochromis transcriptus and its congeners are cooperatively breeding cichlids with a highly organized social system (Awata and Kohda, 2004;Awata et al, 2005Awata et al, , 2006Awata et al, , 2008Awata et al, , 2010Heg and Bachar, 2006;Kohda et al, 2009). Breeding groups consist of multiple unrelated males and females that frequently share paternity and cooperatively raise their brood (Awata et al, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

The use of multiple sources of social information in contest behavior: testing the social cognitive abilities of a cichlid fish

et al. 2015

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Theory suggests that living in large social groups with dynamic social interactions often favors the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities. Studies of how animals assess their own contest ability commonly focus on a single cognitive task, and little is known about the diversity or co-occurrence of cognitive abilities in social species. We examined how a highly social cichlid fish Julidochromis transcriptus uses four major cognitive abilities in contest situations; direct experience, winner/loser effects, social eavesdropping and transitive inference (TI). We conducted experiments in which fish assessed the social status of rivals after either direct physical contests or observed contests. Individuals used direct information from a previous physical encounter to re-establish dominance without additional contact, but winner/loser effects were not observed. Social eavesdropping alone was ruled out, but we found that transitive reasoning was used to infer social dominance of other individuals of unknown status. Our results suggest that in stable hierarchical social groups, estimations of contest ability, based on individual recognition pathways such as TI and direct experience, are more prevalent than social eavesdropping or winner/loser effects. We suggest that advanced cognitive abilities might be widespread among highly social fishes, but have previously gone undetected.

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Living on the wedge: female control of paternity in a cooperatively polyandrous cichlid

Cited by 29 publications

References 60 publications

Order effects in transitive inference: does the presentation order of social information affect transitive inference in social animals?

Order effects in transitive inference: does the presentation order of social information affect transitive inference in social animals?

Male reproductive tactics to increase paternity in the polygynandrous Columbian ground squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus)

The use of multiple sources of social information in contest behavior: testing the social cognitive abilities of a cichlid fish

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