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Provenance and threat-sensitive predator avoidance patterns in wild-caught Trinidadian guppies

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Abstract

The antipredator behaviour of prey organisms is shaped by a series of threat-sensitive trade-offs between the benefits associated with successful predator avoidance and a suite of other fitness-related behaviours such as foraging, mating and territorial defence. Recent research has shown that the overall intensity of antipredator response and the pattern of threat-sensitive trade-offs are influenced by current conditions, including variability in predation risk over a period of days to weeks. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that long-term predation pressure will likewise have shaped the nature of the threat-sensitive antipredator behaviour of wild-caught Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Female guppies were collected from two populations that have evolved under high- and low-predation pressure, respectively, in the Aripo River, Northern Mountain Range, Trinidad. Under laboratory conditions, we exposed shoals of three guppies to varying concentrations of conspecific damage-released chemical alarm cues. Lower Aripo (high-predation) guppies exhibited the strongest antipredator response when exposed to the highest alarm cue concentration and a graded decline in response intensity with decreasing concentrations of alarm cue. Upper Aripo (low-predation) guppies, however, exhibited a nongraded (hypersensitive) response pattern. Our results suggest that long-term predation pressure shapes not only the overall intensity of antipredator responses of Trinidadian guppies but also their threat-sensitive behavioural response patterns.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Darren Croft, Safie Burrows, Katherine Jones and Kimberley Hair for assistance in the laboratory and field. We also thank the Director of Fisheries in the Trinidadian Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources for permission to collect guppies from the Aripo River for use in our study. Financial support was provided by Concordia University and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to G.E. Brown and by Carleton University and NSERC to J.-G.J. Godin. All work reported herein was conducted in accordance the guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care and the laws of Canada, and was approved by the Concordia University Animal Research Ethics Committee (protocol # AREC-2008-BROW).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6, Canada

    Grant E. Brown, Camille J. Macnaughton & Chris K. Elvidge

  2. Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Indar Ramnarine

  3. Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Jean-Guy J. Godin

Authors
  1. Grant E. Brown
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  2. Camille J. Macnaughton
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  3. Chris K. Elvidge
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  4. Indar Ramnarine
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  5. Jean-Guy J. Godin
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Correspondence to Grant E. Brown.

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Communicated by T. Bakker

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Brown, G.E., Macnaughton, C.J., Elvidge, C.K. et al. Provenance and threat-sensitive predator avoidance patterns in wild-caught Trinidadian guppies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 699–706 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0703-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0703-4

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