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Revisiting cannibalism in fishes

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Abstract

Cannibalism, the act of eating an individual of the same species, has long intrigued researchers. More than 30 years after publication of reviews on the topic, there appears to be little consensus about the commonness of cannibalism and its ecological and evolutionary importance. Since Smith and Reay (Rev Fish Biol Fish 1:41–64, 1991. doi:10.1007/BF00042661) reviewed cannibalism in teleost fish, many new studies have been published that address aspects of cannibalism and here we present an updated review. Reports of cannibalism have increased, especially since the 1990s, with many accounts from aquaculture research. Cannibalism has been recorded for 390 teleost species from 104 families, with 150 species accounts based only on captive fish. The number of literature reports of cannibalism is almost equal for marine and freshwater fishes; freshwater families with most reported cases are Percidae, Salmonidae and Esocidae, and marine families are Gobiidae, Gadidae and Merluciidae. Ecological and evolutionary implications of cannibalism are discussed along with perspectives for future research.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that helped us to improve the quality of this manuscript. We also acknowledge support from CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) and CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) programs of the Brazilian government, the US National Science Foundation (Grant DEB 1257813), and the estate of George and Carolyn Kelso via the International Sportfish Fund. KOW is a visiting researcher of UEM, Brazil (PVE-CAPES Project 74-2013), and AAA and LSP were supported by CNPq (Proc. 306553/2011 and Proc. 233691/2014-6).

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  1. Nupelia, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, Maringá, PR, 87020-900, Brazil

    Larissa Strictar Pereira & Angelo Antonio Agostinho

  2. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2258, USA

    Kirk O. Winemiller

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  1. Larissa Strictar Pereira
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  2. Angelo Antonio Agostinho
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  3. Kirk O. Winemiller
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Correspondence to Larissa Strictar Pereira.

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Pereira, L.S., Agostinho, A.A. & Winemiller, K.O. Revisiting cannibalism in fishes. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 27, 499–513 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-017-9469-y

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