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Past ownership makes crayfish more aggressive

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Abstract

There is plenty of evidence that resource value is one of the most important non-strategic variables in animal fighting behavior. Here, we tested whether the past ownership of a shelter might modify the agonistic behavior of the crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes, eventually increasing its probability to win when it reencounters a previously met conspecific away from that resource. The agonistic behavior of familiar pairs composed of size-matched males was observed for an hour; after that, the two contestants had been kept in isolation for 2 days, either in the presence or in the absence of a shelter. Specifically, in the isolation phase, a shelter was offered to (1) both crayfish, (2) no crayfish, (3) the dominant crayfish only, and (4) the subordinate crayfish only. The following combat was conducted in the absence of any refuge. The crayfish that previously owned a shelter showed a higher aggressive motivation to fight than the individuals kept without a shelter. Particularly, in the pairs (4), subordinate crayfish were even more aggressive than dominants but were never able to invert hierarchies. Taken together, our results confirm the role played by shelters as determinants of agonism and also show, for the first time, how the behavior of crayfish and their internal state may be affected by their past ownership of a resource.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Silvia Bertocchi and Carmen Trunfio for their help in conducting the experiments, and Laura Aquiloni and Giuseppe Mazza for their help in collecting crayfish. We also thank Dr. Paul Moore and one anonymous reviewer for their helpful suggestions. No license was required for this work within Italy. All animals recovered from the experiments and were returned to the rivers. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica “Leo Pardi”, Università degli Studi di Firenze, via Romana 17, 50125, Florence, Italy

    Elena Tricarico & Francesca Gherardi

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  1. Elena Tricarico
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  2. Francesca Gherardi
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Correspondence to Elena Tricarico.

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Communicated by T. Moore

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Tricarico, E., Gherardi, F. Past ownership makes crayfish more aggressive. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 575–581 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0873-8

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