CULTURAL TRANSMISSION OF PREDATOR RECOGNITION IN FISHES - INTRASPECIFIC AND INTERSPECIFIC LEARNING

Individuals that live in groups may have the opportunity to learn to r ecognize unfamiliar predators by observing the fright responses of exp erienced individuals in the group. In intraspecific trials, naive fath ead minnows, Pimephales promelas, gave fright responses to chemical st imuli from predatory northern pike, Esox lucius, when paired with pike -experienced conspecifics but not when paired with pike-naive conspeci fics. These pike-conditioned minnows retained the fright responses to pike odour when tested alone, indicating that learning had occurred, a nd transmitted their fright responses to pike-naive minnows in subsequ ent trials. Brook stickleback, Culaea inconstans, are found in mixed-s pecies aggregations with fathead minnows and are also vulnerable to pr edation by northern pike. In a series of interspecific tests, pike-nai ve brook stickleback gave fright responses to chemical stimuli from no rthern pike when paired with pike-experienced minnows but not when pai red with pike-naive minnows. Pike-conditioned stickleback also retaine d the fright responses when tested alone and subsequently also transmi tted the fright responses to pike-naive minnows. Individuals may benef it from observations of the fright responses of conspecifics or hetero specifics by (1) being alerted to the immediate presence of unfamiliar predators and (2) learning to recognize unfamiliar predators as a pot ential threat. (C) 1996 The Association for the Study of Animal Behavi our