Social predation in electric eels
Autor: | Carlos David de Santana, Douglas A. Bastos, Jansen Zuanon, Lúcia H. Rapp Py-Daniel |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0303 health sciences Ecology Amazon rainforest Nekton Foraging 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Nature Notes fish behavior Predation 03 medical and health sciences Geography lcsh:QH540-549.5 amazon fishes feeding strategy xingu river lcsh:Ecology Herding Predator Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 030304 developmental biology Nature and Landscape Conservation |
Zdroj: | Ecology and Evolution Ecology and Evolution, Vol 11, Iss 3, Pp 1088-1092 (2021) |
ISSN: | 2045-7758 |
DOI: | 10.1002/ece3.7121 |
Popis: | Social predation—when groups of predators coordinate actions to find and capture prey—is a common tactic among mammals but comparatively rare in fishes. We report the unexpected social predation by electric eels, an otherwise solitary predator in the Amazon rainforest. Observations made in different years and recorded on video show electric eels herding, encircling shoals of small nektonic fishes, and launching joint predatory high‐voltage strikes on the prey ball. These findings challenge the hypothesis that electric eels may have a single foraging strategy and extend our knowledge on social predation to an organism that employs high‐voltage discharge for hunting. Thereby offering a novel perspective for studies on the evolutionary interplay between predatory and escape tactics. We report the unexpected social predation by electric eels, an otherwise solitary predator in the Amazon rainforest. Illustration was produced by Animate Your Science. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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