Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Sociality among animals is a common phenomenon which has both costs and benefits. More and more studies are published that uses shell dwelling cichlids as a proxy for other taxa because of their convenience when studying, unique evolution and large variety in species. In this study, videos of the species Neolamprologus Multifasciatus from Lake Tanganyika has been used to investigates two different questions: 1) If there are any differences between territories of the species on the edge of the larger groups compared to territories in the centre. 2) If N. multifasciatus uses sand digging behaviour to gain a competitive advantage against neighbouring territories by depositing sand in the direction of them. This thesis found that there is no significant difference between edge groups and centre groups in the parameters we analysed (aggressive behaviour from the dominant male, time of heterospecific intrusion, digging behaviour of the dominant male, number of group hiding events and time dominant male spends in shell). The thesis also found that N. multifasciatus deposits sand in the direction of neighbours more often than would be predicted by chance. We further discuss both our small sample size as well as what our findings means in a broader behavioural context in animals, especially terrestrial animals