Social enhancement and social inhibition of foraging behaviour in hatcher-reared salmon

• Published in: Journal of Fish Biology
• Main Authors: Brown, C, Laland, Kevin Neville
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: social enhancement; inhibition; Atlantic salmon; foraging; hatchery; INFORMATION-TRANSFER; BLUNTNOSE MINNOWS; PREDATOR PRESENCE; SHOAL SIZE; FISH; PREY; TRANSMISSION; SELECTION; TROUT; WILD; Minnows; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/social-enhancement-and-social-inhibition-of-foraging-behaviour-in-hatcherreared-salmon(a791f0d2-41a1-4d75-8dc2-2084fd877ee2).html; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2002.tb01857.x; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036810557&partnerID=8YFLogxK

The results of two experiments showed that observation of a trained conspecific Atlantic salmon Salmo salar significantly increased the rate at which naive hatchery-reared fish accepted novel, live prey items, whereas the presence of an untrained conspecific actually decreased learning rates due to social inhibition. Pre-release training involving exposure of hatchery-reared fish to live prey items in the presence of pre-trained demonstrators would result in a significant enhancement in their foraging success on release and help prevent starvation, which is thought to be one of the principal causes of post-release mortality in hatchery-reared fishes. (C) 2002 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.