Briffa Mark, Elwood Robert W
Medical Biology Centre, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.
Proc Biol Sci. 2004 Feb 22;271(1537):373-9. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2633.
When animals engage in fights they face a series of decisions, which are based on the value of the contested resource and either their relative or their absolute fighting ability. Certain correlates of fighting ability or 'resource holding potential' such as body size are fixed but physiological correlates are expected to vary during the encounter. We examine the role of energy reserves in determining fight outcomes and parameters during 'shell fighting' in hermit crabs. During these fights, the two contestants perform very different roles of attacker and defender. We show that the balance of the total energy pool, in the form of glucose and glycogen, determines the ability of defenders to resist eviction from their shells. Low glucose in evicted defenders is not caused by depletion of energy reserves, rather mobilization of glycogen appears to be the result of a strategic decision about whether to resist effectively, based on the perceived fighting ability of the attacker. Attackers, however, always initiate the fight so such a decision for this role appears unlikely. In addition to influencing decisions and ability during fights, physiological correlates of fighting ability can in turn be influenced by strategic decisions.
动物在争斗时会面临一系列决策，这些决策基于争夺资源的价值以及它们的相对或绝对战斗能力。某些与战斗能力或“资源占有潜力”相关的因素，如体型大小是固定的，但生理相关因素在争斗过程中预计会有所变化。我们研究了能量储备在寄居蟹“壳争斗”中决定争斗结果和参数方面的作用。在这些争斗中，两名竞争者分别扮演攻击者和防御者这两种截然不同的角色。我们发现，以葡萄糖和糖原形式存在的总能量池的平衡，决定了防御者抵抗被逐出壳的能力。被逐出壳的防御者体内葡萄糖含量低并非能量储备耗尽所致，相反，糖原的调动似乎是基于对攻击者感知到的战斗能力而做出的是否有效抵抗的战略决策的结果。然而，攻击者总是发起争斗，所以对于这个角色来说，做出这样的决策似乎不太可能。除了在争斗过程中影响决策和能力外，战斗能力的生理相关因素反过来也会受到战略决策的影响。
