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

Foraging success is likely to affect hunger level and motivationto locateand exploit novel food sources in animals. We exploredthe relationshipbetween scramble competition for limited foodand foraging innovation in theguppy (Poecilia reticulata),predicting that poor competitors wouldbe more likely to innovatewhen presented with novel foraging tasks. Amongmales, we foundthat latency to complete novel foraging tasks was correlatedbothwith weight gain and number of food items consumed, suggestingthat poorcompetitors are more likely to innovate. However,among females there was norelationship between innovative tendencyand either weight gain or foragingsuccess. We suggest thatthis sex difference may reflect parental investmentasymmetriesin males and females, and we predict similar sex differencesinother species.