Foraging innovation is inversely related to competitive ability in male but not in female guppies

Abstract

Foraging success is likely to affect hunger level and motivation to locate and exploit novel food sources in animals. We explored the relationship between scramble competition for limited food and foraging innovation in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata), predicting that poor competitors would be more likely to innovate when presented with novel foraging tasks. Among males, we found that latency to complete novel foraging tasks was correlated both with weight gain and number of food items consumed, suggesting that poor competitors are more likely to innovate. However, among females there was no relationship between innovative tendency and either weight gain or foraging success. We suggest that this sex difference may reflect parental investment asymmetries in males and females, and we predict similar sex differences in other species.