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| Anole Carolinensis photo R Colin Blenis |
On my morning walk, I often meet others and we
exchange pleasantries, well, usually. Young people, younger than their
mid-twenties that is, are often reluctant to take on the responsibility of
offering an opinion on the quality of the morning.
So
it is with many other animal species, the younger members of which are
circumspect and signal their position in the social order. Often, unlike with
us humans, it is important that their communications are honest just in case
they get called out. Of course it is always a temptation to maximize the
assets, but do those communications stay honest?
O’Connor
in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology (1) reviews a study
by Lailvaux et al in which they put
this to the test (2). They start with the suspicion that everything may not
always be what it seems if one party or another is under stress.
Their
species of choice was lizards – green anole lizards in particular. These are
not very vocal and rely on the size of a brightly colored dewlap to signal that
they are the kid on the block, best
stud in town and have a bite that will beat all comers.
The
team from New Orleans brought up two groups of lizards from babies. One group
were pampered, had the best of everything like good 1-percenters, whilst the
other group had a harder time, being kept on short rations and expected to know
their place. The expected result was that the 1-percenters would be fitter,
have stronger bites and more impressive dewlaps, which would keep the hoi pollio
in their place.
The
result? The lizards that were short changed did end up with weaker bites as
they weren’t as fit, but they put their efforts into large fancy dewlaps and
turned into lying lizards who were attempting to con their way to the top and
strut the stage like a winner.
It
is interesting to watch the TV shows and note that we have much in common with
our quieter friends of the lizard persuasion.
- http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/13/v.1.full.pdf+html
- S.P. Lailvaux, R.L. Gilbert & J.R. Edwards, Proc. Roy. Soc B (2011), DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2577
