DDIG: Assessment of fighting ability and the use of the aggressive call in gray treefrog contests

许多动物用攻击性的信号而不是明显的肢体冲突来解决争端。尽管密集研究积极的信号,是大多数动物评估自己的地位和竞争对手在比赛尚不清楚:例如，动物可能会使用相互评估，在竞争中坚持下去是基于评估自己相对于对手的战斗能力，或者它们可能会使用自我评估，在决定退出时只基于评估自己的累积成本，而不考虑对手的特征。最近的理论工作提供了一种方法来区分可能的评估手段。这项研究将利用这些最新的理论进展来确定雄性灰树蛙（Hyla versicolor）在攻击性声音互动中是否使用相互评估或自我评估。在大小相等和大小不等的配对中，对发出呼叫的雄性之间进行攻击的持续时间和升级程度的测量将用于区分这两种可能性。在相互评估下，无论个体的绝对体型如何，当个体的匹配程度越接近时，预计比赛时间越长；而自我评估预测，无论体型不对称与否，比赛时间是较小个体绝对体型的递增函数。该实验将提供关于攻击性信号的重要性的重要新信息，这将对确认最近理论工作的结果很重要。它也将继续发展的H. versicolor作为一个模型的研究侵略性信号。一般来说，青蛙的攻击性叫声尚未得到充分研究，但青蛙为研究交流提供了许多优势。最后，这个项目将为几个本科生（包括那些来自代表性不足的群体）提供重要的研究经验，他们将有机会充分参与项目的执行。

In many animals, aggressive signals, rather than overt physical fighting are used to resolve disputes. Despite intensive research into aggressive signaling, the means by which most animals assess their own status and that of competitors during contests remains unclear: for example, animals may use mutual assessment, in which persistence in a contest is based on assessing their fighting ability relative to that of their opponent, or they may use self-assessment, in which the decision to withdraw is based only on assessing their own accumulated costs, regardless of characteristics of their opponent. Recent theoretical work has provided a method to distinguish between possible means of assessment. This study will use these recent theoretical advances to determine whether male gray treefrogs, Hyla versicolor, use mutual or self assessment during aggressive vocal interactions. Measurements of the duration and level of escalation of staged aggressive encounters between calling males in size-equal and size-unequal pairings will be used to distinguish between these two possibilities. Under mutual assessment, contests are expected to be longer when individuals are more closely matched, regardless of their absolute size, while self-assessment predicts that contest duration is an increasing function of the absolute size of the smaller individual, regardless of size asymmetry.This experiment will provide important new information on the significance of aggressive signaling that will be important for confirming the results of recent theoretical work. It will also continue the development of H. versicolor as a model for studies of aggressive signaling. Aggressive calling in frogs has been understudied in general, yet frogs offer many advantages to the study of communication. Finally, this project will provide important research experiences for several undergraduate students (including those from underrepresented groups), who will be given the opportunity to participate fully in the project's execution.