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Abstract(s)
There is a wealth of game theoretical approaches to the evolution and
maintenance of cooperation between unrelated individuals and accumulating
empirical tests of these models. This contrasts strongly with our
lack of knowledge on proximate causes of cooperative behaviour. Marine
cleaning mutualism has been used as a model system to address
functional aspects of conflict resolution: client reef fish benefit from
cleaning interactions through parasite removal, but cleaner fish Labroides
dimidiatus prefer client mucus. Hence, feeding against their preference
represents cooperative behaviour in cleaners. Cleaners regularly cheat
non-predatory clients while they rarely cheat predatory clients. Here,
we asked how precisely cleaners can adjust service quality from one
interaction to the next. We found that non-predatory clients receive a
better service if the previous client was a predator than if the previous
client was a non-predator. In a related laboratory experiment, a handnet
used as a stressor resulted in cleaners feeding more against their
preference in subsequent interactions. The combination of the cleaners’
behaviour in the two studies shows that the cleaners’ service quality for
a given client species is not fixed, but it can be manipulated. The results
suggest that short-term stress is one factor that causes cleaners to
increase their levels of cooperation, a hypothesis that is amenable to further
experiments manipulating the endocrine system.
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Citation
Ethology, 117, 246-253