Dr Warburton, whose research has focused on Australia’s freshwater fish, particularly local native fish in South East Queensland, has run experiments looking at how Silver Perch learn how to handle different types of prey.

“What came out, unexpectedly, was that while they were learning about their prey, their foraging efficiency went down,” said Dr Warburton. “With one type of prey, the fish got more and more efficient at catching their food, but when we put two different types of prey in together, their overall efficiency dropped. We think it was because of they suffered from divided attention. It’s a cost of learning.”

Another example of fish memory was that fish can learn to avoid predators after being attacked once – this memory was retained for several months.

Dr Warburton said fish also exhibit behaviors that we tend to think as human.