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Assessment of Predation Risk by Juvenile Yellow Perch, Perca flavescens: Responses to Alarm Cues from Conspecifics and Prey Guild Members

Authors :
Douglas P. Chivers
Sheri A. Fisher
Reehan S. Mirza
Source :
Environmental Biology of Fishes. 66:321-327
Publication Year :
2003
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2003.

Abstract

In two laboratory experiments we tested juvenile yellow perch, Perca flavescens, for behavioural responses to alarm cues of injured conspecifics and several prey guild members: adult perch, Iowa darters, Etheostoma exile and spottail shiners, Notropis hudsonius. Spottail shiners are phylogenetically distant to yellow perch whereas Iowa darters and perch are both members of the Family Percidae. Groups of juvenile yellow perch increased shoal cohesion and movement towards the substrate after detecting conspecific alarm cues when compared to cues of injured swordtails, Xiphophorus helleri, a species phylogenetically distant from perch. Individual juvenile perch increased shelter use and froze more when exposed to chemical alarm cues from both juvenile and adult perch, shiners and darters compared to exposure to injured swordtail cues or distilled water. The response to cues of darters may indicate that alarm cues are evolutionarily conserved within percid fishes or that perch had learned to recognize darter cues. The response to spot tail shiners likely represents learned recognition of the cues of a prey guild member.

Details

ISSN :
15735133 and 03781909
Volume :
66
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Environmental Biology of Fishes
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........ab7ed844558d5ec0896c06fff90d5ffe
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1023966320018