| Summary: | European eels (Anguilla Anguilla), an endangered species with high economic value, exhibit very unusual features in their multistage catadromous life cycle at different life stages. The reproduction of eel takes place in the Sargasso Sea. Leptocephalus larvae use ocean currents (mainly the Gulf Stream) to migrate to European coastal areas, and then metamorphose into glass eels probably as they reach the continental shelf. Glass eel then, enter estuaries to join the fresh waters network. Knowledge about glass eel biology and migration has mainly increased in the eighties, and it is now well established that the activity during the estuary migration depends mainly on tidal cycle, even if lunar and circadian rhythms and/or direct influence of light and tidal coefficient may interact. Different migratory tactics are suspected on the basis of recent laboratory experiments (Bolliet & Labonne, 2008; Bureau du Colombier et al., 2009), notably the existence of individuals swimming only with the current, others swimming with and against the current, and others presenting a weak degree of activity. The propensity to migrate and glass eels energy content would be linked and may result in different migratory behaviours possibly leading to estuarine settlement (Bureau du Colombier et al., 2007; 2009). Unfortunately, few are known about the glass eel swimming behaviours in estuaries, a crucial point to better understand their estuarine migration: such knowledge would help to characterize the migratory tactics and to better understand the link with energy status. The videotracking system [EthoVision Color-Pro 3.1 (Noldus Information Technology)] which allows to measure automatically the movements of individuals represents an interesting tool to progress in this questioning. Nowadays, video tracking to measure fish behaviours is relatively frequent, but is rather rare in the ecological studies. Moreover, tracking a transparent animal, under water current conditions is a real challenge, particularly at night. To detect the ...
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