The growth benefits of aggressive behavior vary with individual metabolism and resource predictability

Differences in behavioral responses to environmental conditions and biological interactions are a key determinant of individual performance. This study investigated how the availability and predictability of food resources modulates the growth of animals that adopt different behavioral strategies. R...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral Ecology
Main Authors: Hoogenboom, Mia O., Armstrong, John D., Groothuis, Ton G. G., Metcalfe, Neil B.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
aggression
animal personality
behavioral strategy
dominance behavior
food predictability
resting metabolic rate
Salmo trutta
TROUT SALMO-TRUTTA
JUVENILE ATLANTIC SALMON
BROWN TROUT
FOOD DISTRIBUTION
SOCIAL-STATUS
BROOK CHARR
INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION
SALVELINUS-FONTINALIS
MASU SALMON
Atlantic salmon
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/d1997f75-2565-4fda-af67-7d95e6f48668
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/d1997f75-2565-4fda-af67-7d95e6f48668
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars161
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/6788447/2013BehavEcolHoogenboom.pdf
Description
Summary:Differences in behavioral responses to environmental conditions and biological interactions are a key determinant of individual performance. This study investigated how the availability and predictability of food resources modulates the growth of animals that adopt different behavioral strategies. Results show that, irrespective of the feeding regime, the growth of juvenile brown trout increased with the expression of active foraging behavior and, similarly, with increasing use of shelter. Conversely, territorial aggressive behavior only promoted growth when food resources Were spatially and temporally predictable, and only for individuals that had high metabolic rates (when compared with their low metabolic rate siblings). Thus, this study shows that only certain behaviors are associated with variation in the physiology of individuals. Moreover, only certain behaviors associate differently with growth under different environmental conditions. These results are partially consistent with the hypothesis that environmental variability promotes the coexistence of alternative behavioral phenotypes. However, some behaviors enhanced growth irrespective of feeding regime, and we did not identify a set of conditions where fish with low resting metabolic rate (RMR) outperformed their high RMR siblings. Hence, additional layers of environmental variation are likely to be required for individuals with low RMR to show maximal growth performance.

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