Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 4, Issue 5, Pages 449-451Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0308
Keywords
sexual segregation; sexual conflict; sexual harassment; Poecilia reticulata; predation risk; social factors hypothesis
Categories
Funding
- National Environmental Research Council UK [NE/E001181/1]
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/E001181/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/E001181/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Sexual conflict is ubiquitous across taxa. It often results in male harassment of females for mating opportunities that are costly for females, in some cases reducing reproductive success and increasing mortality. One strategy that females may employ to avoid sexual harassment is to segregate spatially from males. In fact, we do find sexual segregation in habitat use in species that have high levels of sexual conflict; however, the role of sexual harassment in driving such segregation remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate experimentally in a population of wild Trinidadian guppies Poecilia reticulata that male sexual harassment drives females into habitats that they otherwise do not prefer to occupy. In support of the social factors hypothesis for sexual segregation, which states that social factors such as harassment drive sexual segregation, this female behaviour leads to segregation of the sexes. In the presence of males, females actively select areas of high predation risk, but low male presence, and thus trade off increased predation risk against reduced sexual harassment.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available