Relatedness and size interact in shaping cannibal aggression
Date:
March 28, 2022
Source:
University of Jyva"skyla" - Jyva"skyla"n yliopisto
Summary:
New research finds that in addition to size difference, relatedness
affects whether or not a poison frog tadpole is more likely to
be eaten.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Cannibalism is common throughout the animal kingdom. It can be strange
to think about real life "battle-royales" playing out in nature such
that many individuals enter and only a few emerge victorious, but in
the tropics we observe exactly that. According to researchers at the
University of Jyva"skyla", Finland, in addition to size difference,
relatedness affects whether or not a poison frog tadpole is more likely
to be eaten.
========================================================================== Fathers of the dyeing poison frog, Dendrobates tinctorius, will transport
their tadpoles to small pools of water where they are confined until metamorphosis.
Tadpoles of this species are aggressive cannibals and resources in these
small pools of water are limited. Thus, there is a fierce competition
between individuals for resources to survive until metamorphosis. Although these nurseries become the arena for a battle-royale between tadpoles,
there are instances where more than one individual survives to become
a frog, indicating that sometimes cannibals let each other live. This
led a research team based at the University of Jyva"skyla" to wonder:
what exactly shapes aggressive decisions between individuals who
have the ability to cannibalize each other? Researchers suspected
that aggression could be mediated by relatedness, size differences,
or perhaps a combination between these two forces. Biologically, there
is precedence for siblings to be more tolerant of each other. This would
mean that firstly, tadpoles have some mechanism of distinguishing related
from unrelated individuals and secondly, that even if they do distinguish siblings they "care" enough about them to leave them alone. Alternatively, aggression could be determined by physical assessment, where size
differences inform tadpoles about the competitive ability of the other. In theory, we would imagine that when size differences are large between competitors that overall aggression is lower, as the risks of a smaller
fighter becoming a meal are high when faced with a much larger cannibal.
Researchers were surprised to discover that cannibals care about the individuals they are faced to fight (up to a point). They found that
large tadpoleswere half as aggressive towards their smaller siblings than towards non-siblings. In other words, cannibals are able to discriminate
their siblings and change their behaviour accordingly.
Thanks to this study, we now have more information to better understand
the apparently strange decisions parents make when depositing their young children in pools that are already occupied by cannibals -- ultimately, high-quality nurseries are hard to find in the jungle, and parents may
rather deposit their young in a superior pool with an older, larger
sibling who they believe may forfeit an easy meal for the sake of family.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Jyva"skyla"_-_Jyva"skyla"n_yliopisto. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Chloe A Fouilloux, Lutz Fromhage, Janne K Valkonen, Bibiana
Rojas. Size-
dependent aggression towards kin in a cannibalistic
species. Behavioral Ecology, 2022; DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arac020 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220328090022.htm
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