Ranking of Feeding Positions by Drift-Feeding Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in Dominance Hierarchies

1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 1994-1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas F. Hughes

Field experiments in the pools of a mountain stream demonstrate that Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) rank feeding positions according to desirability and that competition sorts fish so that the dominance rank of each individual matches the rank desirability of its position. Groups containing the same number of fish always occupied the same set of positions, and positions were added (in reverse order of desirability) as group size was increased; these results show that fish ranked positions. There was an almost perfect correlation between the dominance rank (measured as fish length) of each fish and the rank desirability of its position, suggesting that competition sorts fish among positions. This conclusion was strengthened by the results of sequential removal experiments in which the dominant fish was removed at the end of each day. After each removal the remaining fish almost always moved into the positions previously occupied by fish immediately above them in the dominance hierarchy.

1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 1999-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas F. Hughes

In this work I describe a model to predict position choice by each individual in a dominance hierarchy of drift-feeding stream salmonids. This is an adaptation of Hughes and Dill's model (1990. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 47: 2039–2048) of position choice by solitary fish. I have included the effect that prey consumption, lateral diffusion of drifting invertebrates, and entry of invertebrates into the drift have on the density of prey downstream of feeding fish and the restrictions that dominant fish place on freedom of choice by their subordinates. l assume that each fish chooses the most profitable position that its rank in the hierarchy will allow. There was an encouraging match between the distribution patterns predicted by the model and the distribution patterns actually adopted by Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in two pools of a mountain stream. This result suggests that Arctic grayling locate and rank positions based on their profitability. The predictions of reduced models, and the location of positions in relation to bottom topography and current flow, suggest that the physical habitat forms the template for distribution patterns by determining the location and ranking of the most profitable positions.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Tibbetts ◽  
Juanita Pardo-Sanchez ◽  
Chloe Weise

Animal groups are often organized hierarchically, with dominant individuals gaining priority access to resources and reproduction over subordinate individuals. Initial dominance hierarchy formation may be influenced by multiple interacting factors, including an animal's individual attributes, conventions and self-organizing social dynamics. After establishment, hierarchies are typically maintained over the long-term because individuals save time, energy and reduce the risk of injury by recognizing and abiding by established dominance relationships. A separate set of behaviours are used to maintain dominance relationships within groups, including behaviours that stabilize ranks (punishment, threats, behavioural asymmetry), as well as signals that provide information about dominance rank (individual identity signals, signals of dominance). In this review, we describe the behaviours used to establish and maintain dominance hierarchies across different taxa and types of societies. We also review opportunities for future research including: testing how self-organizing behavioural dynamics interact with other factors to mediate dominance hierarchy formation, measuring the long-term stability of social hierarchies and the factors that disrupt hierarchy stability, incorporating phenotypic plasticity into our understanding of the behavioural dynamics of hierarchies and considering how cognition coevolves with the behaviours used to establish and maintain hierarchies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Raab ◽  
Sercan Bayezit ◽  
Saskia Erdle ◽  
Jan Benda

AbstractSocial animals establish dominance hierarchies to regulate access to resources. Although communication signals could reduce costs in negotiating dominance, their detailed role and emergence in non-mammalian vertebrates is not well researched. We tracked electrocommunication signals and agonistic behaviors of the gymnotiform fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus in staged competition experiments. Subordinates emitted the majority of so called “rises” in dependence on the competitor’s relative size and sex. Rises provoked ritualized biting or chasing behaviors by dominant fish. Already after 25 minutes losers were accurately predictable based on rise numbers, but they continued to emit rises. We suggest the interplay between communication and aggression to fine tune relative dominance without questioning dominance rank. This communication system regulates the skewness of access to resources within a dominance hierarchy and allows A. leptorhynchus to populate neotropical rivers with high abundances.


1982 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Schmidt ◽  
W. John O'Brien

A component analysis approach was applied to studies of the zooplankton feeding of Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) of 3–20 cm standard length using all arctic zooplankton species common in the area. Unlike other fish species, larger grayling have greater reactive distance. As expected, the ability of grayling to locate prey was found to increase with size of prey and with light intensity. Grayling vision was found to increase dramatically at light intensities higher than 100 lx. Generally, grayling located and attacked any species within the visual field, locating all by core body size. One exception was the copepod Diaptomus pribilofensis, which was of appropriate size and pigmented a bright red, but was never attacked and eaten by any grayling. The large copepod Heterocope septentrionalis was able to evade grayling feeding attack, but Heterocope evasion was dependent on grayling size and water temperature. Analysis of inter-gill-raker spacing showed that spacing increases linearly with fish length up to 13 cm, at which length no further increase was observed. Such change in inter-gill-raker spacing suggests the feeding niche of grayling may be broader than that of similar sized, temperate centrarchid planktivores.Key words: Arctic grayling, Thymallus arcticus; planktivorous fish, predator–prey interaction, prey evasion, zooplankton


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Lynne Rystrom ◽  
Romy C. Prawitt ◽  
S. Helene Richter ◽  
Norbert Sachser ◽  
Sylvia Kaiser

Social interactions among group members often lead to the formation of stable dominance hierarchies. Glucocorticoids (i.e. cortisol) have been proposed as an endocrine mechanism underlying social behavior, and previous studies have linked baseline as well as challenge glucocorticoid concentrations to dominance rank. Since the importance of rank on fitness differs between males and females, selection pressures acting on the underlying endocrine mechanisms may differ between the sexes. In male guinea pigs, for example, it is known that cortisol responsiveness mediates social behavior and that dominance rank and cortisol responsiveness are stable within individuals over time. It is unclear whether this is also the case for female guinea pigs. Thus the aim of this study was to investigate whether cortisol concentrations are repeatable in female guinea pigs and whether female rank is correlated to baseline cortisol concentrations or cortisol responsiveness. We show that cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank were significantly repeatable but not correlated in female guinea pigs. Furthermore, baseline cortisol was not repeatable and also did not correlate to dominance rank. Our results demonstrate that baseline cortisol and cortisol responsiveness represent different biological processes; cortisol responsiveness reflects a stable trait while baseline cortisol likely fluctuates with current state. Furthermore, cortisol responsiveness as a mediator of aggressive behavior and dominance acquisition might not be important for maintaining dominance hierarchies in stable groups of females displaying minimal aggression. Overall, this study reveals the remarkable stability of cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank in an adult female rodent and lays the groundwork for future investigations into the causes and consequences of this individual variation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 20200468
Author(s):  
Steven J. Portugal ◽  
James R. Usherwood ◽  
Craig R. White ◽  
Daniel W. E. Sankey ◽  
Alan M. Wilson

Dominance hierarchies confer benefits to group members by decreasing the incidences of physical conflict, but may result in certain lower ranked individuals consistently missing out on access to resources. Here, we report a linear dominance hierarchy remaining stable over time in a closed population of birds. We show that this stability can be disrupted, however, by the artificial mass loading of birds that typically comprise the bottom 50% of the hierarchy. Mass loading causes these low-ranked birds to immediately become more aggressive and rise-up the dominance hierarchy; however, this effect was only evident in males and was absent in females. Removal of the artificial mass causes the hierarchy to return to its previous structure. This interruption of a stable hierarchy implies a strong direct link between body mass and social behaviour and suggests that an individual's personality can be altered by the artificial manipulation of body mass.


2019 ◽  
Vol 102 (11) ◽  
pp. 1337-1349
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Falke ◽  
Lauren T. Bailey ◽  
Kevin M. Fraley ◽  
Michael J. Lunde ◽  
Andrew D. Gryska

1986 ◽  
Vol 148 (6) ◽  
pp. 625-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Kennedy ◽  
K. Roy MacKenzie

For a social group to develop, two opposing adaptive processes must be reconciled—mechanisms for developing cohesion and mechanisms for establishing a dominance hierarchy. The formation of stable groups provides significant evolutionary advantages: a source of protection, increased reproductive opportunities, and a larger store of survival strategies than any one individual could encompass. A recent theory of human evolution (Reynolds, 1981) stresses that social behaviour would seem to be the most likely single cause of the origin of human intelligence, if one origin must be isolated. Current interest in the biological basis of behaviour has been focused particularly on specific diagnostic categories and biochemical mechanisms. This paper reviews a different research tradition, based on ethological principles, and applies the findings to an understanding of human group behaviour.


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