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Related Experiment Video

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Long-term Behavioral Tracking of Freely Swimming Weakly Electric Fish
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Referential gestures in fish collaborative hunting.

Alexander L Vail1, Andrea Manica, Redouan Bshary

  • 1Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. alv32@cam.ac.uk

Nature Communications
|April 25, 2013
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Summary

Coral reef groupers use a specific signal to indicate hidden prey to cooperative hunting partners like moray eels and octopuses. This discovery expands our understanding of referential gestures beyond large-brained vertebrates.

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Area of Science:

  • Ethology
  • Animal Communication
  • Cognitive Ecology

Background:

  • Referential gestures, crucial for human language development, were previously observed only in great apes and ravens.
  • This limited observation suggested comparable cognitive abilities between primates and corvids.
  • The study investigates the potential for referential gestures in other animal groups.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify and analyze a specific signal used by coral reef fishes.
  • To determine if this signal meets the criteria for a referential gesture.
  • To explore the cognitive capabilities of non-primate, non-corvid species.

Main Methods:

  • Observation of grouper (Plectropomus pessuliferus marisrubri and Plectropomus leopardus) behavior during hunting.
  • Analysis of a specific signal used to alert cooperative partners.
  • Evaluation of the signal against five proposed attributes of referential gestures.

Main Results:

  • Coral reef fishes, specifically groupers, employ a signal to direct attention to hidden prey.
  • This signal is directed towards a potential recipient (e.g., moray eels, Napoleon wrasses, octopuses).
  • The signal is mechanically ineffective, elicits voluntary responses, and shows hallmarks of intentionality.

Conclusions:

  • The observed grouper signal exhibits characteristics of a referential gesture.
  • Referential gesture use is not exclusive to large-brained vertebrates like primates and corvids.
  • This finding broadens the known scope of complex communication in the animal kingdom.