Diversionary displays of paternal stickleback

Summary In Crystal Lake, British Columbia, male threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) perform a diversionary display that deters cannibalistic conspecifics from entering their territories and destroying their nests or consuming offspring. In this population, the display consists of males swimming directly out of their territories and rooting aggressively in the substratum, mimicking stickleback feeding on nests of others, or digging for nesting materials. The display is elicited solely by conspecifics, and usually by benthic foraging groups of 2–300 individuals. It usually is elicited when groups are approaching the territory directly. Otherwise the male typically joins the group or remains still in his territory until the group leaves. This observation suggests that males are capable of discriminating conditions under which the display is most likely to be successful. The display is absent in a population in Garden Bay Lake, British Columbia, in which benthic foraging groups are absent. In Crystal Lake the males themselves do not risk predation by the groups, and the tendency of males to perform the display does not change with reproductive condition. Comparison with diversionary displays performed in two additional allopatric populations suggests that diversionary displays in this species incorporate elements of other behavioral sequences displaced to the display, and that variation in the structure of the display exists among populations.