Abstract：
We considered the relationship between the benefits and costs of territorial defense in a wild population of the Leon Springs pupfish, Cyprinodon bovinus. We defined benefit as the number of eggs deposited on an artificial substratum placed within the defender\'s territory. Costs included two defensive behaviors. First, males frequently \"patrolled\" their territories, swimming back-and-forth across their area. Second, males chased intruding Pecos gambusia (Gambusia nobilis) as well as small male and female conspecific C. bovinus from their territories. Both of these species prey on the territorial defenders\' eggs; additionally, small male C. bovinus will attempt to \"steal\" spawns from the territorial defender by spawning with females in the territory. Our analyses revealed that only patrol frequency was related to the reproductive benefit of the territory. Neither chases against gambusia nor conspecifics were predicted by egg numbers on the breeding substrata. We speculate that the frequency of patrolling is an indicator of territorial value and note the qualitative differences in chasing behavior against the different species of intruder.
摘要：
我们考虑了莱昂斯普林斯p鱼野生种群中领土防御的收益和成本之间的关系，Cyprinodonbovinus.我们将收益定义为放置在防御者领土内的人造基质上的卵数量。成本包括两种防御行为。首先,男性经常“巡逻”他们的领土，在他们的区域来回游泳。第二,雄性从其领土上追赶入侵Pecosgambusia（Gambusianobilis）以及小型雄性和雌性同种动物C.bovinus。这两个物种都捕食领土捍卫者的卵；此外，小型雄性C.bovinus将试图通过在领土上与雌性产卵来“窃取”从领土防御者那里产卵。我们的分析表明，只有巡逻频率与该地区的生殖利益有关。育种基质上的卵数既不能预测对gambusia的追逐，也不能预测种属。我们推测巡逻的频率是领土价值的指标，并注意到针对不同物种的入侵者的追逐行为的质的差异。
