Flight response of the barber surgeonfish, Acanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 1855 (Teleostei: Acanthuridae), to spearfisher presence

Benevides, Larissa J.; Nunes, José de Anchieta C. C.; Costa, T. L. A.; Sampaio, Cláudio L. S.

doi:10.1590/1982-0224-20150010

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(88 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…An important intrinsic driver of FID of fish is body size. Several studies have identified the positive link between individual fish size and FID in exploited populations (Benevides, Nunes, Costa, & Sampaio, 2016;Gotanda, Turgeon, & Kramer, 2009;Januchowski-Hartley, Graham, Feary, Morove, & Cinner, 2011;Sbragaglia et al, 2018). A seemingly reasonable assumption to explain this correlation involves fish fitness-related traits (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta‐analysis of fish behavioural reaction to underwater human presence

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In an increasingly anthropic world, humans have profound impacts on the distribution and behaviour of marine fishes. The increased human presence has modified fishes’ antipredator behavioural responses, and consequently flight decisions, as a function of their changed perceptions of risk. Understanding how fish react to human presence can help identify the most vulnerable functional groups/species and estimate impacts caused by human disturbance. Shoal and body size are known to influence fish flight initiation distance (FID; the distance between the predator and prey when the prey begins to escape); however, few studies attempt to test the moderators of these relationships. Here, we present a comprehensive meta‐analysis evaluating FID of fish in response to human presence. Specifically, we investigated six candidate moderators that could influence the relationship between FID with shoal and body size. Our results showed that individual fish size was strongly and positively correlated with FID and the most important moderator that explained the variance in individual body size‐FID relationship was shoaling behaviour. However, and somehow surprisingly, we detected no significant relationship between shoal size and FID. We discuss how these results can inform the development of fish conservation strategies and ultimately assist in the management of marine protected areas.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta‐analysis of fish behavioural reaction to underwater human presence

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other studies have concluded that the increased FIDs with size could be attributed to higher spearfishing pressure on larger fishes 26 , 64 . However, our experiment took place in a no-take zone, where there is theoretically zero fishing pressure, and all fish are protected from spearfishing regardless of their size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Behaviour of mesopredatory coral reef fishes in response to threats from sharks and humans

Asunsolo-Rivera

Lester

Langlois

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both sharks and humans present a potentially lethal threat to mesopredatory fishes in coral reef systems, with implications for both population dynamics and the role of mesopredatory fishes in reef ecosystems. This study quantifies the antipredator behaviours mesopredatory fishes exhibit towards the presence of large coral reef carnivores and compares these behavioural responses to those elicited by the presence of snorkelers. Here, we used snorkelers and animated life-size models of the blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) to simulate potential predatory threats to mesopredatory reef fishes (lethrinids, lutjanids, haemulids and serranids). The responses of these reef fishes to the models and the snorkelers were compared to those generated by three non-threatening controls (life-size models of a green turtle [Chelonia mydas], a PVC-pipe [an object control] and a Perspex shape [a second object control]). A Remote Underwater Stereo-Video System (Stereo-RUV) recorded the approach of the different treatments and controls and allowed accurate measurement of Flight Initiation Distance (FID) and categorization of the type of flight response by fishes. We found that mesopredatory reef fishes had greater FIDs in response to the approach of threatening models (1402 ± 402–1533 ± 171 mm; mean ± SE) compared to the controls (706 ± 151–896 ± 8963 mm). There was no significant difference in FID of mesopredatory fishes between the shark model and the snorkeler, suggesting that these treatments provoked similar levels of predator avoidance behaviour. This has implications for researchers monitoring behaviour in situ or using underwater census as a technique to estimate the abundance of reef fishes. Our study suggests that, irrespective of the degree to which sharks actually consume these mesopredatory reef fishes, they still elicit a predictable and consistent antipredator response that has the potential to create risk effects.

show abstract

“…Habitat context, such as refuge proximity, is an additional driver of antipredator behaviour. With decreasing distance to refuge, individuals become more confident and allow closer predator approaches [ 41 , 42 ]. While changes in temperature [ 43 ] and habitat context [ 44 ] might make early stages of coral reef fishes more vulnerable to predation in temperate environments, shoaling behaviour and refuge proximity in contrast may reduce their risk to temperate predators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral-reef fishes can become more risk-averse at their poleward range limits

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As climate warms, tropical species are expanding their distribution to temperate ecosystems where they are confronted with novel predators and habitats. Predation strongly regulates ecological communities, and range-extending species that adopt an effective antipredator strategy have a higher likelihood to persist in non-native environments. Here, we test this hypothesis by comparing various proxies of antipredator and other fitness-related behaviours between range-extending tropical fishes and native-temperate fishes at multiple sites across a 730 km latitudinal range. Although some behavioural proxies of risk aversion remained unaltered for individual tropical fish species, in general they became more risk-averse (increased sheltering and/or flight initiation distance), and their activity level decreased poleward. Nevertheless, they did not experience a decline in body condition or feeding rate in their temperate ranges. Temperate fishes did not show a consistently altered pattern in their behaviours across range locations, even though one species increased its flight initiation distance at the warm-temperate location and another one had lowest activity levels at the coldest range location. The maintenance of feeding and bite rate combined with a decreased activity level and increased sheltering may be behavioural strategies adopted by range-extending tropical fishes, to preserve energy and maintain fitness in their novel temperate ecosystems.

show abstract

Flight response of the barber surgeonfish, Acanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 1855 (Teleostei: Acanthuridae), to spearfisher presence

Cited by 14 publications

References 69 publications

A meta‐analysis of fish behavioural reaction to underwater human presence

A meta‐analysis of fish behavioural reaction to underwater human presence

Behaviour of mesopredatory coral reef fishes in response to threats from sharks and humans

Coral-reef fishes can become more risk-averse at their poleward range limits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About