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Animal Cognition: How Archer Fish Learn to Down Rapidly Moving Targets

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 16; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cub.2005.12.037

1879-0445

Stefan Schuster, Saskia Wöhl, Markus Griebsch, Ina Klostermeier,

Marine animal studies overview

In extremely rapid maneuvers, animals including man can launch ballistic motor patterns that cannot immediately be corrected [1Collett T.S. Land M.F. How hoverflies compute interception courses.J. Comp. Physiol. 1978; 125: 191-204Crossref Scopus (130) Google Scholar, 2Carpenter R.H.S. Movements of the Eyes.Second Edition. Pion Limited, London1988Google Scholar, 3Rossel S. Corlija J. Schuster S. Predicting three-dimensional target motion: how archer fish determine where to catch their dislodged prey.J. Exp. Biol. 2002; 205: 3321-3326PubMed Google Scholar]. Such patterns are difficult to direct at targets that move in three-dimensional space [2Carpenter R.H.S. Movements of the Eyes.Second Edition. Pion Limited, London1988Google Scholar, 3Rossel S. Corlija J. Schuster S. Predicting three-dimensional target motion: how archer fish determine where to catch their dislodged prey.J. Exp. Biol. 2002; 205: 3321-3326PubMed Google Scholar, 4Berry M.J. Brivanlou I.H. Jordan T. Meister M. Anticipation of moving stimuli by the retina.Nature. 1999; 398: 334-338Crossref PubMed Scopus (302) Google Scholar], and it is presently unknown how animals learn to acquire the precision required. Archer fish live in groups and are renowned for their ballistic hunting technique in which they knock down stationary aerial insect prey with a precisely aimed shot of water [5Lüling K.H. The archerfish.Sci. Am. 1963; 209: 100-108Crossref Google Scholar, 6Dill L.M. Refraction and the spitting behavior of the archerfish (Toxotes chatareus).Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 1976; 2: 169-184Google Scholar, 7Schuster S. Rossel S. Schmidtmann A. Jäger A. Poralla J. Archer fish learn to compensate for complex optical distortions to determine the absolute size of their aerial prey.Curr. Biol. 2004; 14: 1565-1568Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (61) Google Scholar]. Here we report that these fish can learn to release their shots so as to hit prey that moves rapidly at great height, a remarkable accomplishment in which the shooter must take both the target's three-dimensional motion as well as that of its rising shot into account. To successfully perform in the three-dimensional task, training with horizontal motion suffices. Moreover, all archer fish of a group were able to learn the complex sensomotor skill from watching a performing group member, without having to practice. This instance of social learning in a fish is most remarkable as it could imply that observers can "change their viewpoint," mapping the perceived shooting characteristics of a distant team member into angles and target distances that they later must use to hit.