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Zebrafish cooperate while inspecting predators: Experimental evidence for conditional approach

bioRxiv, ISSN: 2692-8205
2019
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Article Description

Different fish species employ a conditional approach strategy during predator inspection; the risk of approaching a predator is distributed across all inspectors, but is not shared with the animals which keep its distance. Zebrafish, a highly social fish, is increasingly being used in behavioural neuroscience, but it is not known whether it displays conditional approach. In the predator inspection task, animals are observed in a tank with a refuge in one extremity, and an animated image of a predator in the other extremity, with a mirror positioned in parallel to the tank, simulating a perfectly reciprocating conspecific. In Experiment 1, animals spent more time inspecting the predator when the image was turned on, but also displayed more erratic swimming, suggesting cooperation under fear. In Experiment 2, animals spent more time inspecting predators when the mirror was parallel to the tank (“cooperating mirror”) than when the mirror was in an angle (“defecting mirror”), suggesting retaliatory behaviour; in both conditions, animals displayed more freezing and erratic swimming. These results suggest that predator inspection is associated with conditional approach, while at the same time inducing fear-like behaviour in the animal.

Bibliographic Details

Flávia Nogueira Pimentel, Ana; Lima-Maximino, Monica Gomes; Soares, Marta Candeias; Maximino, Caio

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Immunology and Microbiology; Neuroscience; Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics

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