Social learning in fishes : a review

Animals acquire skills and knowledge from other animals, and fish are no exception. There is now strong experimental evidence that many species of fish exhibit social learning and traditional behaviours. Here, we review the literature pertaining to social learning in fish, focusing on (i) antipredator behaviour, (ii) migration and orientation, (iii) foraging, (iv) mate choice and (v) eavesdropping.

[1]  A Study of Social Transmission in Juvenile Dicentrarchus Labrax (Pisces, Serranidae), in an Operant Conditioning Situation , 1987 .

[2]  W. Potts.  The chorus-line hypothesis of manoeuvre coordination in avian flocks , 1984, Nature.

[3]  R. L. Day,et al.  Interactions between shoal size and conformity in guppy social foraging , 2001, Animal Behaviour.

[4]  K. Warburton.  Learning of foraging skills by fish , 2003 .

[5]  S. G. Reebs.  Can a minority of informed leaders determine the foraging movements of a fish shoal? , 2000, Animal Behaviour.

[6]  K. Laland,et al.  Social learning of a novel avoidance task in the guppy: conformity and social release , 2002, Animal Behaviour.

[7]  K. Laland,et al.  Shoaling generates social learning of foraging information in guppies , 1997, Animal Behaviour.

[8]  J. Templeton,et al.  Life skills training for hatchery fish: Social learning and survival , 1989 .

[9]  I. Jamieson.  Do Female Fish Prefer to Spawn in Nests with Eggs for Reasons of Mate Choice Copying or Egg Survival? , 1995, The American Naturalist.

[10]  R. Sargent,et al.  Allopaternal care in the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas: females prefer males with eggs , 1988, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[11]  R. Warner,et al.  Traditionality of mating-site preferences in a coral reef fish , 1988, Nature.

[12]  R. Sibly,et al.  Producers and scroungers: A general model and its application to captive flocks of house sparrows , 1981, Animal Behaviour.

[13]  Michael J. Ryan,et al.  Mate choice copying in the sailfin molly, Poecilia latipinna, in the wild , 2002, Animal Behaviour.

[14]  K. Laland,et al.  Who follows whom? Shoaling preferences and social learning of foraging information in guppies , 1998, Animal Behaviour.

[15]  Peter K. McGregor,et al.  Signalling in Territorial Systems: A Context for Individual Identification, Ranging and Eavesdropping , 1993 .

[16]  J. Godin,et al.  Do Female Three‐Spined Sticklebacks Copy the Mate Choice of Others? , 1998, The American Naturalist.

[17]  Anne E. Magurran,et al.  Dicing with death: predator inspection behaviour in minnow shoals , 1986 .

[18]  M. Morgan.  The influence of hunger, shoal size and predator presence on foraging in bluntnose minnows , 1988, Animal Behaviour.

[19]  Lee Alan Dugatkin,et al.  Sexual Selection and Imitation: Females Copy the Mate Choice of Others , 1992, The American Naturalist.

[20]  Kevin N. Laland,et al.  Social learning and life skills training for hatchery reared fish , 2001 .

[21]  R. R. Warner.  Male versus female influences on mating-site determination in a coral reef fish , 1990, Animal Behaviour.

[22]  Patrick W. Colgan,et al.  The effects of predator presence and shoal size on foraging in bluntnose minnows,Pimephales notatus , 1987, Environmental Biology of Fishes.

[23]  Jens Krause,et al.  Transmission of Fright Reaction Between Different Species of Fish , 1993 .

[24]  L. D. Green,et al.  Mate copying versus preference for actively courting males by female Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) , 1996 .

[25]  R. Brooks.  Copying and the repeatability of mate choice , 1996, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[26]  R. Brooks.  MATE CHOICE COPYING IN GUPPIES: FEMALES AVOID THE PLACE WHERE THEY SAW COURTSHIP , 1999 .

[27]  R. L. Day,et al.  The future of stock enhancements: lessons for hatchery practice from conservation biology , 2002 .

[28]  E. Forsgren,et al.  Female sand gobies gain direct benefits by choosing males with eggs in their nests , 1996, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[29]  D. Westneat,et al.  Alternative mechanisms of nonindependent mate choice , 2000, Animal Behaviour.

[30]  J. Kieffer,et al.  The role of learning in fish behaviour , 1992, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries.

[31]  R. Bshary,et al.  Fish cognition: a primate's eye view , 2002, Animal Cognition.

[32]  K. Laland,et al.  Social transmission of maladaptive information in the guppy , 1998 .

[33]  L A Dugatkin,et al.  Reversal of female mate choice by copying in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) , 1992, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[34]  S. Shettleworth.  Animal cognition and animal behaviour , 2001, Animal Behaviour.

[35]  L. Giraldeau,et al.  Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions , 2001, Animal Behaviour.

[36]  J. Johnsson,et al.  Watch and learn: preview of the fighting ability of opponents alters contest behaviour in rainbow trout , 1998, Animal Behaviour.

[37]  Michael J. Ryan,et al.  Male Sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) copy the mate choice of other males , 1997 .

[38]  John D. Reynolds,et al.  Female preference for preferred males is reversed under low oxygen conditions in the common goby (Pomatoschistus microps) , 1999 .

[39]  Peter K. McGregor,et al.  The effect of an audience on intrasexual communication in male Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens , 2001 .

[40]  M. D. Suboski,et al.  Alarm reaction in acquisition and social transmission of simulated-predator recognition by zebra danio fish (Brachydanio rerio). , 1990 .

[41]  M. Sclafani,et al.  Female mate-choice copying in guppies, Poecilia reticulata : a re-evaluation , 1997, Animal Behaviour.

[42]  Peter K. McGregor,et al.  Know thine enemy: fighting fish gather information from observing conspecific interactions , 1998, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[43]  A. Magurran,et al.  Learned predator recognition and antipredator responses in fishes , 2003 .

[44]  K. Lindström,et al.  Schooling affects growth in the three‐spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus , 1995 .

[45]  D. Chivers,et al.  Cultural transmission of predator recognition in fishes: intraspecific and interspecific learning , 1996, Animal Behaviour.

[46]  J. Höglund,et al.  Copying and sexual selection. , 1992, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[47]  P. Webb.  Does schooling reduce fast-start response latencies in teleosts? , 1980 .

[48]  K. Laland,et al.  Social enhancement and social inhibition of foraging behaviour in hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon , 2002 .

[49]  L. Sundström,et al.  Experience and social environment influence the ability of young brown trout to forage on live novel prey , 2001, Animal Behaviour.

[50]  A. Whiten,et al.  On the Nature and Evolution of Imitation in the Animal Kingdom: Reappraisal of a Century of Research , 1992 .

[51]  G. Helfman,et al.  Social transmission of behavioural traditions in a coral reef fish , 1984, Animal Behaviour.

[52]  Jackie Chappell,et al.  Inhibition of optimal behavior by social transmission in the guppy depends on shoaling , 2002 .

[53]  V. Braithwaite,et al.  The role of learning in fish orientation , 2003 .

[54]  T. Bakker,et al.  Genetic analysis of sneaking and egg-thievery in a natural population of the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) , 2001, Heredity.

[55]  Y. Sugita.  IMITATIVE CHOICE BEHAVIOR IN GUPPIES , 1980 .

[56]  C. Ryer,et al.  Social mechanisms facilitating exploitation of spatially variable ephemeral food patches in a pelagic marine fish , 1992, Animal Behaviour.

[57]  A. Bisazza,et al.  Female mate choice, male-male competition and parental care in the river bullhead, Cottus gobio L. (Pisces, Cottidae) , 1988, Animal Behaviour.

[58]  T. Pitcher,et al.  Fish in larger shoals find food faster , 1982, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[59]  Grant E. Brown.  Learning about danger: chemical alarm cues and local risk assessment in prey fishes , 2003 .

[60]  Michael J. Miller,et al.  Migration, speciation, and the evolution of diadromy in anguillid eels , 2002 .

[61]  K. Lindström,et al.  Egg presence, egg loss, and female mate preferences in the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) , 1996 .

[62]  F. Weissing,et al.  Female preference for nests with many eggs: a cost-benefit analysis of female choice in fish with paternal care , 1996 .

[63]  M. Ryan,et al.  Benefit to male sailfin mollies of mating with heterospecific females. , 1994, Science.

[64]  Lee Alan Dugatkin,et al.  Female mate copying in the guppy {Poecilia reticulata): age-dependent effects , 1993 .

[65]  Michael J. Ryan,et al.  Male body length influences mate-choice copying in the sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna , 1998 .

[66]  R. Knapp,et al.  Egg-mimicry as a mating strategy in the fantail darter, Etheostoma flabellare: females prefer males with eggs , 1989, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[67]  L. Dugatkin,et al.  Mate-choice copying under predation risk in the Trinigadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) , 1996 .

[68]  J. Meyer,et al.  The ontogeny of twilight migration patterns in grunts (Pisces: Haemulidae) , 1982, Animal Behaviour.

[69]  C. Ryer,et al.  Information transfer and the facilitation and inhibition of feeding in a schooling fish , 1991, Environmental Biology of Fishes.

[70]  C. Heyes,et al.  SOCIAL LEARNING IN ANIMALS: CATEGORIES AND MECHANISMS , 1994, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.