Data for fish foraging and anti-predator escape behavior
Data files
May 02, 2025 version files 3.75 KB
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Experience_exp_data.csv
2.03 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
Prior experience with predation risk can provide valuable information and influence how prey animals trade off between food and safety. We examine foraging and refuge use behavior among groups of social goldfish (Carrasius auratus) at risk of predation from little egrets (Egretta garzetta) for groups containing only individuals that previously experienced predators, only naïve individuals, or mixed groups containing both experienced and naïve fish. Groups of all-experienced fish consumed significantly less food than the all-naïve and mixed groups, and spent the least amount of time foraging outside of the refuge. Furthermore, within the mixed treatment groups, naïve individuals spent more time foraging compared to experienced group members. In terms of survival, the groups containing all-naïve members experienced the highest mortality, and significantly more naïve fish were captured within the mixed groups. Interestingly, the mixed groups experienced overall mortality rates similar to the less active all-experienced groups, even though the mixed groups foraged more like the all-naïve groups. We found that the mixed groups were able to detect the approaching predator significantly earlier than the all-naïve groups, which may explain this result. Thus, we show that naïve individuals within mixed groups did not reduce foraging activity via social learning from experienced group members, but did benefit from enhanced collective predator detection. This result represents an interesting example of the benefit of sociality and living in groups of individuals with different experiences.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrvn0
Description of the data and file structure
In this experiment, we tested three fish groups containing either all fish naive to predation, all fish experienced with predation from the day prior, and a mixed group of fish containing half naive and half experienced members. The fish then were tested with a live egret predator. The fish could choose to hide under a safe refuge that offered no food, or forage at the GUD trays in the open water environment.
Files and variables
File: Experience_exp_data.XLSX
Description:
This data set includes data comparing the time (min) the egret spent at the pool, the foraging success of the fish (number of pellets left in tray - GUDs), the time (min) spent fish groups spent out of the refuge, and the number of fish captured by the egret predator (this data is further separated to compare the naive and experienced members within the "mixed treatment group") for the three fish treatment groups: Naive, Experienced, and Mixed.
The "group" column represents each test day (n = 21). Within each test day, there were 3 pools ("pool" column). The "Trt" column represents treatment for the pool (N=naive, M=mixed, E=experienced). "Egrettime" column represents the number of minutes the egret spent at the pool. "GUDs" represents how many fish pellets were left in the tray at the end of the trial. "FishCaptured" represents how many fish were eaten by the egret predator. "Fish_Timeout" represents the number of minutes the fish spent foraging outside of the refuge.
Code/software
Microsoft Excel can be used to view the data file.
