Cambridge University A shadowy trumpetfish, chasing a parrotfish
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 21:56
When hunting, certain predatory fish use larger species of fish to hide behind in order to surprise their prey. This is the conclusion of scientists from the University of Cambridge, who extensively studied this ‘shadowing’ in the water off the coast of Curaçao.
The researchers spent countless hours in the Caribbean Sea for their research, which was published today in the scientific journal Current Biology.
For example, they observed the behavior of the smaller prey fish by pulling fake fish through the water on a nylon thread. In one experiment, they drew a hand-painted 3D model of a trumpetfish – an elongated, thin predatory fish – along the wire. The smaller fish (often damselflies) then fled immediately.
Those same prey fish then barely responded to a model of a harmless, larger parrotfish. The scientists also barely saw a reaction when that same parrotfish was shadowed by a trumpetfish.
The scientists filmed the fish’s behavior:
The shadow behavior of trumpetfish has been seen and reported by divers before and has now been extensively investigated for the first time.
One of the Cambridge researchers, Sam Matchette, writes in a blog that the tactics are similar to what humans once did while hunting; they hid behind wooden carvings of horses. According to him, the researchers have now provided evidence for the first time that a predator uses another animal as camouflage.
Shadowing is an important strategy for predators that cannot use camouflage in their immediate environment, says Matchette. He does not exclude that shadowing as a technique will be used more often by predatory fish in the future, now that coral reefs are becoming barren due to climate change.
2023-08-07 19:56:19
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