To boldly climb: behavioural and cognitive differences in migrating European glass eels

• Published in: Royal Society Open Science
• Main Authors: Podgorniak, T., Blanchet, Simon, de Oliveira, E., Daverat, Françoise, Pierron, F.
• Other Authors: Ecosystèmes aquatiques et changements globaux (UR EABX), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Station d'écologie théorique et expérimentale (SETE), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Simulation et Traitement de l'information pour l'Exploitation des systèmes de Production (EDF R&D STEP), EDF R&D (EDF R&D), EDF (EDF)-EDF (EDF), Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: DAMS; ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR; POPULATION DYNAMICS; DYNAMIQUE DE POPULATION; COMPORTEMENT ANIMAL; BARRAGE; ANGUILLA ANGUILLA; OBSTACLE A LA MIGRATION; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; Anguilla anguilla; European eel
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01308293; https://hal.science/hal-01308293/document; https://hal.science/hal-01308293/file/bx2016-pub00048044.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150665

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]QUASARE International audience European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a catadromous fish species that received substantial attention as its population has markedly declined in the last three decades. The possible causes of this decline include habitat fragmentation factors such as dams and weirs. In some cases, these obstacles are equipped with fish friendly passage devices that may select young eels according to their climbing behaviour. We tested how individual climbing tendency was related to the event of fishway passage experienced in the field and classified fish climbing profiles as climbing ‘leaders', ‘followers', ‘finishers' and ‘no climbers'. Moreover, we analysed the brain transcription level of genes related to neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity and compared it to climbing profiles.We found that fish from the upstream segments of an impounded river had a higher climbing propensity. Their behaviour was also more repeatable throughout the whole test than the obstacle-naive fish from the downstream segment. Moreover, we found that boldly climbing ‘leaders' had lower levels of transcription of synapse-related genes than the climbing ‘followers'. These differences could be related to coping styles of fish, where proactive ‘leaders' express a routine and risky behaviour, whereas reactive fish need an environmental assessment before exploratory behaviour. Our study showed that differences in climbing propensity exist in glass eelsseparated by water obstacles. Moreover, eels could adoptclimbing different strategies according to the way they dealwith environmental stress and to the cognitive abilities theypossess.