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Cryptic prey colouration increases search time in brown trout (Salmo trutta): effects of learning and body size

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Abstract

Little is known about how cryptic colouration influences prey search in near-surface aquatic habitats, although such knowledge is critical for understanding the adaptive value of colour crypsis as well as the perceptive constraints influencing foraging behaviour in these environments. This study had two main aims: (1) to investigate how background colour matching by prey affects foraging efficiency by brown trout parr and (2) to investigate how foraging ability on cryptic and conspicuous prey is affected by fish size at age (reflecting dominance). We addressed these questions by training wild brown trout parr to forage individually on live brown-coloured maggots on a cryptic (brown) or conspicuous (green) background. A separate experiment confirmed the absence of trout preference for brown or green substrate. The results show that prey background colour matching increases search time in brown trout. Search time generally decreased by learning, but conspicuous prey remained an easier prey to find throughout the six training trials. Thus, perceptive constraints appear to limit search efficiency for cryptic prey, suggesting that cryptic colouration can confer survival benefits to prey in natural environments. Smaller fish generally found conspicuous prey faster than larger individuals, whereas search time for cryptic prey was not influenced by body size. This suggests that smaller individuals compensate for inferior competitive ability by increasing foraging activity rather than improving cognitive ability. The technique of varying cognitive demands in behavioural tasks could be used more in future studies aimed at distinguishing motivational effects from cognitive explanations for variation in behavioural performance.

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Acknowledgements

JIJ was financed by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas). We thank Sami Merilaita and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this paper. The experiments comply with the current laws in Sweden and were approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Research in Gothenburg (Dnr: 199/2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Animal Ecology, Department of Zoology, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

    Jörgen I. Johnsson & Karin Kjällman-Eriksson

  2. Department of Zoology, Göteborg University, Box 463, 405 30, Göteborg, Sweden

    Jörgen I. Johnsson

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  1. Jörgen I. Johnsson
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  2. Karin Kjällman-Eriksson
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Correspondence to Jörgen I. Johnsson.

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Communicated by T. Bakker

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Johnsson, J.I., Kjällman-Eriksson, K. Cryptic prey colouration increases search time in brown trout (Salmo trutta): effects of learning and body size. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 1613–1620 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0590-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0590-8

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