Endangered & in danger: a test of acquired predator recognition of novel predators by pupfish Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone

Authors: Molly Johnson, Kathryn Hanson, Craig Stockwell, Brian Wisenden

Year: 2022

Abstract

Small fishes generally do not have innate predator recognition. In fact, predator recognition is acquired by associative learning when conspecific chemical alarm cues, which are typically released when the skin cells are ruptured during a predator attack, are paired with another novel stimulus such as the appearance or odor of the predator. Alarm cue alerts nearby prey to the presence of an actively foraging predator, evoking antipredator responses such as reduction in activity, movement out of the water column and seeking shelter. Work on minnows has shown that a single pairing of alarm cues and a novel predator odor confers near-permanent avoidance of the novel odor in future encounters. Recent work in our lab showed that pupfish Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone and C. n. amargosae exhibit antipredator responses to conspecific skin extract. Here, we test if C. n. shoshone can be trained to recognize and avoid the odor of a novel predator, largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, by pairing bass odor (earthworm diet) with pupfish skin extract, or using odor of bass that were maintained on a diet of pupfish. These findings will provide insight into the capacity of Shoshone pupfish to adapt to the presence of novel invasive predators in an otherwise isolated desert system.