Guppy Behavior

----------------------------------

Abstract
The environment plays a major role in shaping animal behavior; when animals experience a sudden change in environmental conditions they require time and energy to adjust; resulting in less time and energy that could otherwise be spent courting and mating (Chapman et al., 2009; Freeman, 2010). Poecilia reticulata, are ideal organism for studying courtship behavior due to the year round sexual activeness of males, as well as their highly conspicuous display of courtship (Mozart, 1998). In this experiment we tested the hypothesis that a change in water temperature will significantly affect the courtship behavior of P. reticulata, due to the increased cost of maintenance, which in turn would decrease the male guppies ability to court the females. (Jordan and Brooks, 2010). We placed both a male and female guppy together in warm (23-26°C) and room temperature (18-23°C) water treatments, and recorded the amount of time the males spent courting the females. We found that the amount of time male guppies spent courting female guppies did not significantly differ between the warm and room temperature water treatments (Mann-Whitney Test: Z= 0.24751, N1= 22, N2= 22p > 0.0001). However, enough trials were not completed during our experiment for our results to be accurate. A longer period of time to conduct this study is highly suggested; more accurate data may provide researchers with a better background on understanding how animals respond to changes in temperature.
Introduction
The environment plays an important role in shaping courtship and mating behaviors of animals (Chapman et al., 2009). In terms of biology, behavior is defined as the response to a stimulus, such as sudden changes in environmental conditions. Some animal behaviors are inherited by offspring (i.e. innate behavior). But for most animals behavior is often condition- dependent and flexible; animals make decisions depending on the situation (Freeman, 2010)....