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Influences of divergent behavioral strategies upon risk allocation in juvenile flatfishes

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Abstract

Animals balance feeding and anti-predator behaviors at various temporal scales. When risk is infrequent or brief, prey can postpone feeding in the short term and temporally allocate feeding behavior to less risky periods. If risk is frequent or lengthy, however, prey must eventually resume feeding to avoid fitness consequences. Species may exhibit different behavioral strategies, depending on the fitness tradeoffs that exist in their environment or across their life histories. North Pacific flatfishes that share juvenile rearing habitat exhibit a variety of responses to predation risk, but their response to risk frequency has not been examined. We observed the feeding and anti-predator behaviors of young-of-the-year English sole (Parophrys vetulus), northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra), and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis)—three species that exhibit divergent anti-predator strategies—following exposure to three levels of predation risk: no risk, infrequent (two exposures/day), and frequent (five exposures/day). The English sole responded to the frequent risk treatment with higher feeding rates than during infrequent risk, following a pattern of behavioral response that is predicted by the risk allocation hypothesis; rock sole and halibut did not follow the predicted pattern, but this may be due to the limited range of treatments. Our observations of unique anti-predator strategies, along with differences in foraging and species-specific ecologies, suggest divergent trajectories of risk allocation for the three species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank B. Laurel and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on this manuscript. We are indebted to S. Haines, P. Iseri, J. Lemke, and M. Ottmar for laboratory and field assistance, and A. Abookire, E. Munk, M. Spencer, and T. Tripp for their help with fish collection. We also thank the many volunteers who assisted with fish collection in Yaquina Bay. This study was conducted as a component of the M.S. research of K.S.B. at Oregon State University. The work was funded by the North Pacific Research Board, grant #R0301 to C. Ryer, A. Abookire, I. Fleming, and A. Stoner. Additional assistance was provided to K.S.B. by Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Markham Scholarship. Experiments were conducted in accordance with the animal care protocols established by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program, and all experiments complied with the current laws of the USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Kate S. Boersma & Selina S. Heppell

  2. Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA—NMFS, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA

    Kate S. Boersma, Clifford H. Ryer & Thomas P. Hurst

  3. Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Cordley Hall 3029, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Kate S. Boersma

Authors
  1. Kate S. Boersma
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  2. Clifford H. Ryer
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  3. Thomas P. Hurst
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  4. Selina S. Heppell
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Correspondence to Kate S. Boersma.

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Communicated by K. Lindström

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Boersma, K.S., Ryer, C.H., Hurst, T.P. et al. Influences of divergent behavioral strategies upon risk allocation in juvenile flatfishes. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 1959–1968 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0627-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0627-z

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