Daytime avoidance of chemosensory alarm cues by adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

Abstract

Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) avoid damage-released and predator chemosensory cues at night, but their response to these cues during the day is unknown. Here, we explored (i) whether sea lamprey avoid these cues during the day and (ii) the effect of water temperature on the avoidance of chemosensory alarm cues in two diurnal laboratory experiments. We hypothesized that daytime activity would be temperature-dependent and that only sea lamprey vulnerable to predation (i.e., not hiding) would behaviourally respond to chemosensory alarm cues. Ten groups of ten sea lamprey were exposed to one of a variety of potential chemosensory cues. The experiments were conducted over a range of temperatures to quantify the effect of temperature on avoidance behaviour. Consistent with our hypothesis, a higher proportion of animals were active during daytime as water temperature increased. Moving sea lamprey showed an avoidance response to 2-phenylethylamine (a compound found in mammalian urine) and human saliva once water temperatures had risen to mean (±SD) = 13.7 (±1.4) °C. Resting and hiding sea lamprey did not show an avoidance response to any of the experimental stimuli.

Characterization of Adult Pacific Lamprey Swimming Behavior in Relation to Environmental Conditions within Large‐Dam Fishways

“…Pacific Lampreys may detect and avoid White Sturgeon using chemosensory cues, as many lamprey species have highly developed olfactory systems (Yun et al 2011). Several recent studies have shown Pacific Lamprey aversion to odors associated with predators and with lamprey injury and mortality (e.g., Imre et al 2010;Wagner et al 2011;Di Rocco et al 2014). Further studies are needed to verify that Pacific Lampreys respond to the presence of White Sturgeon, to identify the sensory mechanism employed (i.e., chemical, vibrational, visual), and to quantify the behavioral and survival effects of White Sturgeon on upstream passage through fishways.…”

Larval Sea Lampreys (<i>Petromyzon marinus</i>) Do Not Emigrate from a Risky Habitat Under Semi-natural Conditions

“…When the ammocoete arrived at the front end of the experimental arena and was exposed to PEa HCl, it rapidly changed direction, swimming quickly to the opposite end of the arena and vigorously burrowing into the substrate. this behaviour suggests that ammocoetes do respond to PEa HCl, not unlike migratory Sea Lampreys (imre et al 2014;Di Rocco et al 2014), but the alarm cues in our experiment did not seem sufficient to initiate relocation once ammocoetes were established in burrows. vulnerability to predation at this stage in life apparently prevented the ammocoetes from leaving the safety of an established burrow.…”

“…a push-pull strategy for Sea Lamprey control has been recently suggested by imre et al (2010), in which sex pheromones combined with chemosensory alarm cues would function to manipulate the behaviour of migratory Sea Lampreys by pushing them away from spawning habitats and luring them into areas where traps or other forms of control are deployed. Recent studies have demonstrated that migratory Sea Lampreys strongly avoid conspecific damage-released alarm and predator cues (Di Rocco et al 2014;.…”

Behavioral Responses of Pacific Lamprey to Alarm Cues

“…We captured a single fish using a dip net, scanned for a PIT-tag code, and then transferred the fish to one of two randomly assigned mazes and tested over two consecutive nights. We placed each fish into its maze during the daytime, typically from 1000 hours to 1400 hours, and the antennas were turned on at this time; however, we did not expect searching activity to occur until sunset, as lamprey are not active during daytime hours (Robinson and Bayer 2005;Di Rocco et al 2014). Before the beginning of each experiment, we randomly determined which arm of the maze would receive the odor treatment (hereafter, treatment arm).…”

“…Strong responses to repellent odors could be used to influence the behavior of migrating fish. For example, manipulation of invasive sea lamprey in the Laurentian Great Lakes using odors has met with some success (Wagner et al 2011;Di Rocco et al 2014;Imre et al 2014;Hume et al 2015) and similar strong responses by Pacific lamprey could be an important management tool. Using odors to repel Pacific lamprey from locations at dams that hinder successful passage while guiding them with attractants toward installed lamprey passage structures is one example of their use as a management tool.…”