Biomedical subjects

Ian M Hamilton

Publications and source records attributed to Ian M Hamilton.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The relationship between social status, behaviour, growth and steroids in male helpers and breeders of a cooperatively breeding cichlid.

We tested whether subordinate helper males of the Lake Tanganyika cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher show elevated excretion levels of the stress hormone cortisol and reduced levels of 11-ketotestosterone and testosterone when living in groups with a small breeder male, compared to similar helper males living in groups with a large breeder male, in a full-factorial repeated measures experimental design. We also measured the same hormones in breeder males with and without helper males. Previous research showed that the size difference between large male helpers and male breeders in groups of this species influences behaviour and growth decisions. Contrary to our expectation, no effect of the size-difference between helper males and breeder males on helper hormone levels was detected. Furthermore, helper males had similar hormone excretion levels to those of size-matched breeder males without helpers, and to small breeder males. There was no influence of egg laying on breeder male and helper hormone levels during the experiment. Interestingly, all three hormone levels were significantly lower in helpers showing elevated levels of submissive behaviour towards the breeders, independently of the size of the breeder males. The low cortisol levels suggest that helper males can successfully reduce stress by appeasing breeder males through submission. Furthermore, helper males showing a high level of submissive behaviour had lower levels of androgens than less submissive helpers, suggesting a lower reproductive potential in submissive helpers. We propose that helper submission may be used as an honest signal of reduced interest in reproduction towards the breeder male in this species.

Aggression↗

PubMed2006

Validation of a randomization procedure to assess animal habitat preferences: microhabitat use of tiger sharks in a seagrass ecosystem.

1. Tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier are important predators in a variety of nearshore communities, including the seagrass ecosystem of Shark Bay, Western Australia. Because tiger sharks are known to influence spatial distributions of multiple prey species, it is important to understand how they use habitats at a variety of spatial scales. We used a combination of catch rates and acoustic tracking to determine tiger shark microhabitat use in Shark Bay. 2. Comparing habitat-use data from tracking against the null hypothesis of no habitat preference is hindered in Shark Bay, as elsewhere, by the difficulty of defining expected habitat use given random movement. We used randomization procedures to generate expected habitat use in the absence of habitat preference and expected habitat use differences among groups (e.g. males and females). We tested the performance of these protocols using simulated data sets with known habitat preferences. 3. The technique correctly classified sets of simulated tracks as displaying a preference or not and was a conservative test for differences in habitat preferences between subgroups of tracks (e.g. males vs. females). 4. Sharks preferred shallow habitats over deep ones, and preferred shallow edge microhabitats over shallow interior ones. The use of shallow edges likely increases encounter rates with potential prey and may have profound consequences for the dynamics of Shark Bay's seagrass ecosystem through indirect effects transmitted by grazers that are common prey of tiger sharks. 5. Females showed a greater tendency to use shallow edge microhabitats than did males; this pattern was not detected by traditional analysis techniques. 6. The randomization procedures presented here are applicable to many field studies that use tracking by allowing researchers both to determine overall habitat preferences and to identify differences in habitat use between groups within their sample.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Contingent movement and cooperation evolve under generalized reciprocity.

How cooperation and altruism among non-relatives can persist in the face of cheating remains a key puzzle in evolutionary biology. Although mechanisms such as direct and indirect reciprocity and limited movement have been put forward to explain such cooperation, they cannot explain cooperation among unfamiliar, highly mobile individuals. Here we show that cooperation may be evolutionarily stable if decisions taken to cooperate and to change group membership are both dependent on anonymous social experience (generalized reciprocity). We find that a win-stay, lose-shift rule (where shifting is either moving away from the group or changing tactics within the group after receiving defection) evolves in evolutionary simulations when group leaving is moderately costly (i.e. the current payoff to being alone is low, but still higher than that in a mutually defecting group, and new groups are rarely encountered). This leads to the establishment of widespread cooperation in the population. If the costs of group leaving are reduced, a similar group-leaving rule evolves in association with cooperation in pairs and exploitation of larger anonymous groups. We emphasize that mechanisms of assortment within populations are often behavioural decisions and should not be considered independently of the evolution of cooperation.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Unrelated helpers will not fully compensate for costs imposed on breeders when they pay to stay.

Unrelated subordinates may invest in costly help to avoid being evicted from groups (the 'pay-to-stay' hypothesis). However, the effectiveness of eviction to enforce help should depend on its being applied accurately and on the costs it imposes on both dominants and subordinates. The relative cost of being evicted is a function of the population frequency of eviction when population growth is limited by density-dependent factors. We describe a stage-structured pay-to-stay model incorporating density-dependent population growth, costly eviction and occasional errors. Breeders demand some amount of help and evict subordinates that do not provide it. Helpers decide on the amount of help they will provide. The threat of eviction alone is sufficient to enforce helping. However, helping will not be favoured if helpers do not impose costs on breeders. The amount of help provided is less than the cost that subordinates impose upon breeders, when any help is provided. Thus, the net fitness effect of a helper under pay-to-stay alone is negative, even if it is investing in cooperative behaviour. Constraints on dispersal have no effect on the amount of help, although they may influence the tolerance threshold of breeders and group stability, depending on the mechanism of density dependence.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Distraction sneakers decrease the expected level of aggression within groups: a game-theoretic model.

Hawk-dove games have been extensively used to predict the conditions under which group-living animals should defend their resources against potential usurpers. Typically, game-theoretic models on aggression consider that resource defense may entail energetic and injury costs. However, intruders may also take advantage of owners who are busy fighting to sneak access to unguarded resources, imposing thereby an additional cost on the use of the escalated hawk strategy. In this article we modify the two-strategy hawk-dove game into a three-strategy hawk-dove-sneaker game that incorporates a distraction-sneaking tactic, allowing us to explore its consequences on the expected level of aggression within groups. Our model predicts a lower proportion of hawks and hence lower frequencies of aggressive interactions within groups than do previous two-strategy hawk-dove games. The extent to which distraction sneakers decrease the frequency of aggression within groups, however, depends on whether they search only for opportunities to join resources uncovered by other group members or for both unchallenged resources and opportunities to usurp.

Aggression↗

PubMed2000

Recruiters and Joiners: Using Optimal Skew Theory to Predict Group Size and the Division of Resources within Groups of Social Foragers.

I apply skew theory to the division of resources within multimember social foraging and antipredator groups. Resource division is modeled as a game between an individual controlling resources (recruiter) and a potential joiner to the group. If a recruiter benefits from the presence of a joiner, it will allocate sufficient resources to the joiner so that the joiner gains as much from group foraging as it would from foraging alone. Joiners should receive a greater proportion of resources controlled by the recruiter when benefits to grouping are low. If group success is a concave-down function of group size, this framework can be used to predict the stable group size. The stable group size is larger than the optimal group size, given equal division of resources, and smaller than the stable group size, given equal division of resources. Furthermore, both current group members and potential joiners agree on the stable group size, so long as the recruiter is able to control resource division. If the recruiter cannot control resource division, there may be conflict over group size and the opportunity for group members to contribute less to group success than they are able.

dominance↗