Neat FC, Taylor AC, Huntingford FA
Fish Biology Group, Division of Environmental & Evolutionary Biology, I.B.L.S., University of Glasgow
Anim Behav. 1998 Apr;55(4):875-82. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1997.0668.
While much is known about the functional significance of strategic decisions in animal fighting, relatively little is understood about the mechanisms that underlie the making of those decisions. In mechanistic terms, strategic decisions, such as either escalating a fight or giving up, are made in relation to the proximate costs that opponents inflict (or can potentially inflict) upon one another. These costs include physical injury and also the physiological consequences of engaging in an energetically demanding activity. We studied the role of injury and energy metabolism during fights between male cichlid fish, Tilapia zillii. In relation to injuries incurred during fights, scale loss differed depending on whether the winner was smaller or larger than its opponent; smaller winners inflicted significantly more damage on their opponents than they received, whereas this difference was not apparent in those fights won by the larger fish. In relation to energy metabolism, escalated fighting resulted in a significant depletion of total sugar reserves in the muscle and the liver. It appears that the muscle energy reserves are respired anaerobically, as was evident from the accumulation of lactate in the muscle. Losers had significantly higher levels of muscle lactate than winners. Together, the injury data and the metabolic data suggest that escalated fighting is costly for both winners and losers, but especially so for losers. These data are discussed in relation to models of animal decision making and we conclude that the difference between opponents in the proximate costs incurred during fighting is likely to underlie the making of decisions such as continuing, giving up or escalating the fight. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
虽然我们对动物争斗中策略性决策的功能意义了解很多，但对于这些决策背后的机制却知之甚少。从机制角度来看，诸如升级争斗或放弃等策略性决策，是根据对手相互施加（或可能施加）的直接成本做出的。这些成本包括身体伤害以及从事一项精力消耗巨大的活动所带来的生理后果。我们研究了雄性齐氏罗非鱼争斗过程中伤害和能量代谢的作用。关于争斗中造成的伤害，鳞片损失情况因获胜者比对手小还是大而有所不同；较小的获胜者对对手造成的伤害明显大于自身受到的伤害，而在较大的鱼获胜的争斗中这种差异并不明显。关于能量代谢，升级的争斗导致肌肉和肝脏中的总糖储备显著消耗。肌肉能量储备似乎通过无氧呼吸消耗，这从肌肉中乳酸的积累可以明显看出。失败者肌肉中的乳酸水平明显高于胜利者。综合伤害数据和代谢数据表明，升级争斗对胜利者和失败者来说成本都很高，但对失败者尤其如此。我们结合动物决策模型对这些数据进行了讨论，并得出结论：争斗过程中对手之间直接成本的差异可能是诸如继续、放弃或升级争斗等决策的基础。版权所有1998年动物行为研究协会。版权所有1998年动物行为研究协会。
