Anti-predator Behavior in Response to Conspecific Visual, Olfactory, and Damage Cues in the Three-spined Stickleback

Anti-predator Behavior in Response to Conspecific Visual, Olfactory, and Damage Cues in the Three-spined Stickleback

Presenter(s)

Claire Elizabeth Van Meter

Comments

Presentation: 1:20-1:40, Kennedy Union 207

Description

Predation is a major source of mortality for prey, which creates a selective pressure to avoid predators whenever possible. By using alarm cues produced by conspecifics, individuals can be alerted of nearby predators without coming into direct contact with them. However, we do not know whether individuals can distinguish between different kinds of conspecific cues and if some types of cues may indicate a more severe predation threat compared to others. I studied the ability of the three-spined stickleback to distinguish between environmental cues by exposing conspecifics to 4 different treatments in a randomized order: 1) Control (control olfactory cues with an unexposed demonstrator), 2) Visual Only (control olfactory cues with an exposed demonstrator), 3)Visual and Stress (stress cues with an exposed demonstrator), and 4) Visual, Stress, and Damage (stress and damage cues with an exposed demonstrator). For 5 minutes before and after exposure to the cues, I watched for four key defensive behaviors: hiding in plants, hiding in the gravel at the bottom of the tank, thigmotaxis, and shoaling. Directly after each assay, I placed the focal subject in 200ml of RO water in a 600ml beaker for 1 hour to collect waterborne cortisol. It was found that observer hiding behavior increased when observers were exposed to visual cues of stressed conspecifics paired with either olfactory cues of stressed conspecifics or conspecific stress and damage cues. Observers also shoaled less when exposed to visual cues paired with olfactory stress cues, but not with visual cues alone, or visual cues paired with stress and damage cues. Males shoaled more than females, but hid less than females. There was no observed change in behavior for demonstrators, regardless of what cues were added. There were also no differences in waterborne cortisol levels for each of the treatments.

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Project Designation

Honors Thesis

Primary Advisor

Karolyn M. Hansen

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Anti-predator Behavior in Response to Conspecific Visual, Olfactory, and Damage Cues in the Three-spined Stickleback

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