Facial and body colouration is linked to social rank in the African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni

These are raw data files for our publication studying animal colouration and behaviour in an African cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni. 

AbstractAnimal colouration is important for social communication within conspecifics to signal threats to competitors or fitness to possible mates. Social status and animal colouration are covarying traits that are plastic in response to dynamic environments. In the African cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni, body colouration and behaviour have been reported to vary with social rank. However, the nature of the interaction between these two traits is poorly understood. We hypothesise that colouration patterns could be linked to the behavioural repertoires underlying social status and situated across regions of interest on the cichlid body plan. To test this hypothesis, we generated Territorial and Non-territorial males and employed computer vision tools to quantify and visualise patterns/colour enrichment associated with stereotyped Territorial/Non-Territorial male behaviour. We report colour-behaviour interactions localised in specific areas of the body and face for two colour morphs, illustrating a more nuanced view of social behaviour and colouration. Since behavioural and morphological variation are key drivers of selection in the East African Great Rift Lakes, we surmise our data may be translatable to other cichlid lineages and underline the importance of trait covariance in sexual selection and male competition.