Abstracts - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

116 Behavioral Biology PostersP BB.23 - ENOlfactory self and kin recognition in a cichlid fishTimo Thünken, Nadine Waltschyk, Theo C. M. Bakker, Harald KullmannInstitut für Evolutionsbiologie und Ökologie, University of BonnThe ability to actively discriminate self from non-self and kin from non-kin is important in diversebehavioral contexts like mating, shoaling or territoriality. Successful discrimination requires thatattributes of oneself as well as of related and unrelated individuals can be reliably assessed. Providedthat phenotypic and genotypic similarity are correlated, the comparison of one’s own phenotypewith those of others should be most promising. Here, we tested whether in- and outbred males ofthe cave breeding cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus recognize themselves and kin by olfactorycues using a functional test. Males discriminate self odor from those of unfamiliar, unrelatedconspecifics as well as from those of familiar brothers suggesting that males recognize themselvesindividually. Furthermore, males tended to discriminate the odor of familiar brothers from those ofunfamiliar, unrelated males. The results suggest that the self odor was recognized as own. We discussthe results in the context of animal self-cognizance. The effect of inbreeding on discriminationbehavior was generally weak.