Repeated parallel differentiation of social learning differences in benthic and limnetic threespine stickleback fish

Individuals can reduce sampling costs and increase foraging efficiency by using information provided by others. One simple form of social information use is delayed local enhancement or increased interest in a location because of the past presence of others. We tested for delayed local enhancement in two ecomorphs of stickleback fish, benthic and limnetic, from three different lakes with putative independent evolutionary origins. Two of these lakes have reproductively isolated ecomorphs (species-pairs), whereas in the third, a previously intact species-pair recently collapsed into a hybrid swarm. Benthic fish in both intact species-pair lakes were more likely to exhibit delayed local enhancement despite being more solitary than limnetic fish. Their behaviour and morphology suggest their current perceived risk and past evolutionary pressure from predation did not drive this difference. In the hybrid swarm lake, we found a reversal in patterns of social information use, with limnetic-looking fish showing delayed local enhancement rather than benthic-looking fish. Together, our results strongly support parallel differentiation of social learning differences in recently evolved fish species, although hybridization can apparently erode and possibly even reverse these differences.