Learning predator recognition

Hazlett BA (2003b) Predator recognition and learned irrelevance in the crayfish Orconectes virilis. Ethology 109 765-780... 

Mathis, A., Chivers, D. P. and Smith, R. J. F., 1996, Cultural transmission of predator recognition in fishes intraspecific and interspecific learning, Anim. Behav. 51 185-201. 

Brown, G.E. Godin, J-G.J. In Press. Who dares, learns chemical inspection behaviour and acquired predator recognition in a characin fish. Anim. Behav. 

Mirza RS, Chivers DP (2001) Learned recognition of heterospecific alarm signals the importance of a mixed predator diet. Ethology 107 1007-1018... 

Chivers, D. P., Mirza, R. S., and Johnston, J. G., 2002, Learned recognition of hetersospecific alarm cues enhances survival during encounters with predators. Behaviour 139 929-938. 

With the importance of heterospecific alarm cues well established, studies have focused on mechanisms of learned recognition. Such studies have documented that individual learning can occur through the diet of a known predator (Mirza and Chivers, in press). Learning can also occur through the association of a novel heterospecific cue... 

In this paper we review learned recognition of heterospecific alarm cues by prey fishes. We do this by providing a case study of the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas)/bTOok stickleback Culaea inconstans) alarm systems. Fathead minnows and brook stickleback commonly occur together in a diversity of water bodies. They share a similar suite of predators and consequently cross-species responses to alarm cues should be highly advantageous. 

Chivers et al. (2002) tested whether or not learned responses could result in a survival benefit, besides confirming that fish could learn unknown heterospecific cues through the diet or a predator. In a two-part study, fathead minnows were exposed to chemical stimuli collected from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed a mixed diet of either minnows and brook stickleback, or swordtail and stickleback. To test if the minnows had acquired recognition of stickleback alarm cues, Chivers et al. (2003) exposed the fish to stickleback alarm cues and introduced an unknown predator, yellow perch or northern pike. Both perch and pike took longer to initiate an attack on minnows that were previously exposed to trout fed minnows and stickleback than those previously exposed to trout fed swordtails and stickleback. These results show again that fishes are able to learn novel cues through association with known cues in a predator s diet. Furthermore, it shows that anti-predator responses to these newly learned cues could result in a survival benefit. 

Wisenden, B.D., Chivers, D.P. Smith, R.J.F 1997. Learned recognition of predation risk by Enallagma damsel-fly larvae (Odonata, Zygoptera) on the basis of chemical cues. J. Chem. Ecol., 23,137—151. 

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