Variation in search and predatory attack strategies of shark mackerel Grammatorcynus bicarinatus

Author(s):  
Peter J. Auster

I observed shark mackerel demonstrating multiple search and attack strategies. Strategies were categorized as three distinct types: (1) a linear search by single or groups of fish along reef features; (2) ambush from a stationary position on the seafloor; and (3) ambush from resting schools of co-occurring predators. Together these strategies were consistent with both information-sharing and producer–scrounger models of group foraging and indicate significant flexibility in individual fish foraging behaviour based on proximate conditions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1907) ◽  
pp. 20190826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Balaban-Feld ◽  
William A. Mitchell ◽  
Burt P. Kotler ◽  
Sundararaj Vijayan ◽  
Lotan T. Tov Elem ◽  
...  

Refuges offer prey animals protection from predation, but increased time spent hiding can reduce foraging opportunities. Within social groups, individuals vary in their refuge use and willingness to forage in the presence of a predator. Here, we examine the relative foraging benefits and mortality costs associated with individual refuge use and foraging behaviour within groups of goldfish ( Carassius auratus ) under predation risk from an avian predator (little egret— Egretta garzetta ). We assessed individual order of emergence from the refuge and participation over 15 group foraging outings, and assigned each fish a daily outing index score. The individual fish that emerged from the refuge earlier than the other group members and that participated in more outings received high outing index scores and consumed more food compared with fish that tended to emerge in posterior positions and participate in fewer outings. However, individual fish that attained high outing index scores suffered a higher risk of predation. Furthermore, the amount of time the egret spent at the pool affected group foraging behaviour: as predation risk increased, groups of fish consumed significantly less food. Our results exemplify the trade-off between foraging success and safety from predation that prey species regularly experience.


2003 ◽  
Vol 270 (1520) ◽  
pp. 1137-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Sernland ◽  
O. Olsson ◽  
N. M. A. Holmgren

2020 ◽  
Vol 643 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
AS Grutter ◽  
S Bejarano ◽  
KL Cheney ◽  
AW Goldizen ◽  
T Sinclair-Taylor ◽  
...  

Territorial and roving grazing fishes farm, and feed on, algae, sediment, or detritus, thus exerting different influences on benthic community structure, and are common clients of cleaner fish. Whether cleaners affect grazing-fish diversity and abundance, and indirectly the benthos, was tested using reefs maintained free of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus for 8.5 yr (removals) compared with controls. We quantified fish abundance per grazing functional group, foraging rates of roving grazers, cleaning rates of roving grazers by L. dimidiatus, reef benthos composition, and fouling material on settlement tiles. Abundances of ‘intensive’ and ‘extensive’ territorial farmers, non-farmers, parrotfishes and Acanthurus spp. were lower on removal than control reefs, but this was not the case for ‘indeterminate’ farmers and Ctenochaetus striatus. Foraging rates of Acanthurus spp. and C. striatus were unaffected by cleaner presence or cleaning duration. This suggests some robustness of the grazers’ foraging behaviour to loss of cleaners. Acanthurus spp. foraged predominantly on sediment and detritus, whereas C. striatus and parrotfishes grazed over algal turfs. Nevertheless, benthic community structure and amount of organic and inorganic material that accumulated over 3.5 mo on tiles were not affected by cleaner presence. Thus, despite greater abundances of many roving grazers, and consequently higher grazing rates being linked to the presence of cleaners, the benthos was not detectably affected by cleaners. This reveals that the positive effect of cleaners on fish abundance is not associated with a subsequent change in the benthos as predicted. Rather, it suggests a resilience of benthic community structure to cleaner-fish loss, possibly related to multiple antagonistic effects of different grazer functional groups. However, losing cleaners remains a problem for reefs, as the lack of cleaning has adverse consequences for fish physiology and populations.


1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Bartareau

To examine the foraging behaviour of the stingless bee Trigona carbonaria Sm., a full-size colony was placed at the centre of a grid of multiple-choice feeding stations with feeders containing water and three sugar solutions at 10, 20 and 40% concentration. The feeding of workers at feeders was monitored during consecutive days under these variable resource conditions. Scouts marked all the sugar-solution feeders with a visible fluid, and the degree of marking and nestmate recruitment was positively correlated with sugar concentration. Workers exhibited characteristics of the group-foraging behaviour termed 'opportunism', whereby many foragers search independently in the field, until one of them finds an exceptional sugar-solution resource and then rapidly recruits nestmates. Overall, workers preferred the 40% sugar feeders, visitation rates decreased with increasing distance from the nest, and visits at the 20 and 10% feeders increased in that sequence when replenishment with sugar solution was interrupted and sugar concentrations declined progressively in the 40 and 20% feeders. These results show that workers have the physiological ability to identify the richest sugar solutions, but indicate that food choice will vary with resource variability. The evidence suggests that the primary strategy involved in the foraging behaviour of this species is to optimise the feeding intake of the colony.


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