Abstract
Mature organisms often have to trade reproductive opportunities against the need to survive, especially in species with exaggerated, sexually selected traits. Life history theory predicts that old males with low residual reproductive value (RRV) would accept greater risk for current reproduction than their younger counterparts. Accordingly, we tested the prediction that, under predation risk, old males of the rock shrimp Rhynchocinetes typus pair with females faster and for a longer time than young males do. We exposed young and old dominant males (in the final ontogenetic stage, called “robustus”) to a female in the absence and presence of a predator. As predicted, older robustus males modified their mating behavior when exposed to a predator. However, in contrast to the prediction, they delayed female seizure under predation risk, possibly to carefully assess the actual threat before initiating female guarding. Once they had established the mate-guarding position, old robustus males did not interrupt it until the end of female spawning and, in the presence of predators, even guarded the female significantly longer than in predator-free treatments. In contrast, younger robustus males did not delay female seizure but abandoned the female repeatedly when a predator was present, suggesting that they perceived and responded to the predation risk. Our results suggest that older robustus males have the experience to assess threats before engaging in risky behaviors that bolster their reproductive success. Although consistent with the theory that low RRV individuals should accept greater reproductive risk, we suggest that old individuals do not recklessly engage in risky behaviors but rather cautiously evaluate the threats before investing in a potentially terminal reproductive event.
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Acknowledgments
We thank E. Díaz and I. Hinojosa for their help during the collection and maintenance of shrimps. Specific thanks go to G. Luna for his support during the final stage of this study and to T. Breithaupt and S. Dennenmoser for their helpful comments on the early and final versions of this manuscript. Three anonymous reviewers and the associate editor provided many helpful suggestions.
Funding
TCvS was supported by a grant from the State Educational Loan Fund of Norway. NCO was supported by a grant from the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Technológico (FONDECYT, postdoctoral project 3150636) of the Chilean Ministry of Education. This work was also supported by the Chilean Millennium Initiative (NC120030) grant.
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All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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ESM 1
Dominant robustus male (above) Rhynchocinetes typus maintaining a female in reproductive cage (a) in the laboratory (Photo Ivan Hinojosa) and (b) in the open, i.e. outside refuge, where other R. typus individuals aggregate in a crevice (background) in a barren ground in Chile (Photo NCO). (PDF 351 kb)
ESM 2
Results of the two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) that tested the effects of predation risk, age and their interaction on the duration of mating behaviours of typus male R. typus. (PDF 12 kb)
ESM 3
Results of pairwise comparisons of the estimated marginal means of all subsets of pre-seizure and reproductive cage duration variables. SE = standard error of the mean; df = degree of freedom. P values in bold are significant at the level of error α = 5 % (after sequential Bonferroni correction). (PDF 146 kb)
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Ory, N.C., van Son, T.C. & Thiel, M. Mating rock shrimp hedge their bets: old males take greater risk, but only after careful assessment of the investment scenario. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1975–1984 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2009-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-2009-7