Thermal influence on defensive behaviours of the Eastern garter snake,Thamnophis sirtalis

Passek, Kelly M; Gillingham, James C.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0458

Cited by 30 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…These results support the optimality hypothesis that animals adopt behaviors that maximize their probability of surviving an encounter with a potential predator. The same hypothesis is consistent with many other patterns in snake antipredator behavior: for example, snakes are less likely to flee if their locomotor ability is compromised by factors such as low body temperature (Fitch 1965; Heckrotte 1967; Costanzo 1986; Passek & Gillingham 1997; Mori & Burghardt 2001), fatigue (Arnold & Bennett 1984), low body condition (Andren 1982), pregnancy (Goode & Duvall 1989), or a recent meal (Herzog & Bailey 1987), or if the feasibility of escape is influenced by the proximity of shelter or conspecifics (Duvall et al. 1985; Shine et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

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Antipredator Tactics of Amphibious Sea‐Snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae)

2003

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Because the antipredator behavior that an animal displays depends upon the context in which it encounters the predator, apparent interspecific differences in antipredator tactics may result from ecological rather than behavioral differences among taxa. We approached 127 free‐ranging laticaudid sea‐snakes on small islands in Noumea Lagoon, New Caledonia, prodded the animals midbody, and recorded their responses. One species (Laticauda colubrina) usually remained immobile (relying on crypsis) whereas another (L. laticaudata) generally fled. However, multivariate analysis shows that the two species actually responded in very similar ways to any given stimulus; the species differed overall because colubrina was generally encountered on land during the day whereas laticaudata was more often encountered in the ocean at night. Thus, apparent interspecific differences in antipredator responses were secondary consequences of interspecific differences in the times and places that predators were encountered. Snakes were more likely to flee rather than remain immobile when rapid locomotion was possible (i.e. juveniles rather than adults; in water rather than on land) and pursuit by a predator was difficult (i.e. at night rather than during the day). These patterns suggest that snakes adjust their antipredator tactics in ways that maximize the chances of surviving the encounter, although the remarkable docility of these highly venomous snakes remains puzzling.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…For example, cold reptiles tend to rely on crypsis or display, whereas hotter reptiles (that are thereby more capable of rapid locomotion) tend to rely on flight instead (e.g. Passek & Gillingham 1997; Shine et al. 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antipredator Tactics of Amphibious Sea‐Snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae)

2003

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“…and hatchlings of two species were excluded from the analysis stimuli, for example visual threatening without a tactile stimulus, may induce different types of response and yield different interspecific similarities. Actually, the response patterns of several species of Thamnophis and Nerodia in this study were somewhat different from those in previous studies (Scudder and Burghardt 1983;Herzog et al 1992;Passek and Gillingham 1997). These differences are probably attributable to different experimental procedures and type of stimulus, age, temperature, ontogenetic experiences, and geographical origin of the snakes (Mori and Burghardt 2004).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 75%

Comparative experimental tests of natricine antipredator displays, with special reference to the apparently unique displays in the Asian genus, Rhabdophis

Mori

Burghardt²

2007

J Ethol

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Nuchal glands are unique organs known in only twelve Old World natricine species (three genera) including Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus. The glands of R. t. tigrinus contain a toxic secretion that may be derived from its toxic toad diet. A series of peculiar antipredator behaviors, for example neck arch, neck butt, and dorsal-facing posture, are exhibited by R. t. tigrinus, and a functional association between this behavior and the nuchal glands has been suggested. To investigate the ubiquitousness of these putatively unique displays among snakes, antipredator responses of 27 taxa of natricine snakes, both with and without nuchal glands, were studied using a common testing procedure. Three of four taxa with nuchal glands exhibited neck arch, neck butt, and dorsal-facing posture. None of the remaining 23 taxa, which do not possess the glands, showed neck arch and neck butt. Principalcomponents analysis indicated the association of the above three displays along with the behaviors termed neck flatten and head elevation, confirming the presence of a series of nuchal gland-related behaviors. These results support the assumption that the suite of peculiar displays is associated with the deterrent effects of the nuchal gland secretion.

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“…In conclusion, behaviors are well known for having strong environmental influences, such as ambient temperature effects on locomotor traits (e.g., Sokal et al 1960;Arnold and Bennett 1984;Garland 1994;Claireaux et al 1995;Passek and Gillingham 1997;Weetman et al 1998) and courtship song (Hedrick 1994;Ritchie and Kyriacou 1994;Sanborn 1997). Moreover, physiological processes such as nutritional or age effects on mating behavior commonly generate experimental noise in behavior assays (Meffert 1988;Mair and Blackwell 1998;Papadopoulos et al 1998;Belmain et al 2000;Bertram 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Nonadditive Genetic Effects in Animal Behavior

Meffert¹,

Hicks²,

Regan³

2002

The American Naturalist

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Heritabilities, commonly used to predict evolutionary potential, are notoriously low for behaviors. Apart from strong contributions of environmental variance in reducing heritabilities, the additive genetic components can be very low, especially when they are camouflaged by nonadditive genetic effects. We first report the heritabilities of courtship traits in founder-flush and control populations of the housefly (Musca domestica L.). We estimated the heritability of each male and female display through the regression of the courtships involving daughters and sons (with randomly selected mates) onto the "midparental" courtship values of their parents. Overall, the average heritability was significantly (P = .012) higher for the parent-daughter assays than for the parent-son assays. We attributed the low (even negative) heritabilities to genotype-by-environment interactions whereby the male's behavior is influenced by the "environment" of his mating partner's preferences for the display, generating epistasis through indirect genetic effects. Moreover, bottlenecked lines had up to 800% of the heritability of the controls, suggesting "conversion" of additive genetic variance from nonadditive components. Second, we used line-cross assays on separate populations that had been selected for divergence in mating behavior to identify dominance and epistasis through heterosis and outbreeding depression in courtship. Finally, our literature review confirms the prevalence of such low heritabilities (i.e., a conservative mean of 0.38) and nonadditive genetics in other behavioral repertoires (64% of the studies). We conclude that animal behavior is especially prone to the gamut of quantitative genetic complexities that can result in negative heritabilities, negative selection responses, inbreeding depression, conversion, heterosis, and outbreeding depression.

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Thermal influence on defensive behaviours of the Eastern garter snake,Thamnophis sirtalis

Cited by 30 publications

References 11 publications

Antipredator Tactics of Amphibious Sea‐Snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae)

Antipredator Tactics of Amphibious Sea‐Snakes (Serpentes, Laticaudidae)

Comparative experimental tests of natricine antipredator displays, with special reference to the apparently unique displays in the Asian genus, Rhabdophis

Nonadditive Genetic Effects in Animal Behavior

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