Research: Evidence of Human-like 'Altruistic' Behavior in Fish Documented; 'Pretty Amazing'

Research: Evidence of Human-like 'Altruistic' Behavior in Fish Documented; 'Pretty Amazing'

By Dr Lexa Grutter

Source: Underwatertimes

6/22/2006

- New research, which has been published in Nature, has uncovered evidence of fish behaviour more commonly associated with humans.

Dr Lexa Grutter, from The University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology, along with colleague Dr Redouan Bshary, from the Swiss University of Neuchatel's Department of Zoology, have shown client fish eavesdrop to determine the trustworthiness of cleaner fish and cleaner fish in turn behave altruistically to be considered more trustworthy.

Cleaner fish are fish sought out by client fish who queue up to have their parasites removed.

Dr Grutter said the interactions between the cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus and its client fishes are a well-known example of mutually beneficial behaviour involving different species.

Cleaners may cooperate and remove parasites from client fish, however they may also cheat by feeding on client mucus, which they prefer. As such there is a temptation for cleaners to cheat.

"Our experiments suggest image scoring is one of several alternative mechanisms used by clients to avoid exploitation by cheating cleaners," Dr Grutter said.

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