Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:09:34.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variation in search and predatory attack strategies of shark mackerel Grammatorcynus bicarinatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2008

Peter J. Auster
Peter J. Auster*
Affiliation:
National Undersea Research Center and Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut at Avery Point, Groton, CT 06340, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Peter J. Auster National Undersea Research Center and Department of Marine SciencesUniversity of Connecticut at Avery PointGroton, CT 06340, USA email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I observed shark mackerel demonstrating multiple search and attack strategies. Strategies were categorized as three distinct types: (1) a linear search by single or groups of fish along reef features; (2) ambush from a stationary position on the seafloor; and (3) ambush from resting schools of co-occurring predators. Together these strategies were consistent with both information-sharing and producer–scrounger models of group foraging and indicate significant flexibility in individual fish foraging behaviour based on proximate conditions.

Keywords

behaviourpredationpreycoral reefreef fishcamouflage
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Issue 4 , August 2008 , pp. 847 - 849
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Giraldeau, L.A. and Beauchamp, G. (1999) Food exploitation: searching for the optimal joining policy. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14, 102–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobson, E.S. (1968) Predatory behavior of some shore fishes in the Gulf of California. Research Report, United States Fish and Wildlife Service 73, 1–92.Google Scholar
Parrish, J.K. (1993) Comparison of the hunting behavior of four piscine predators attacking schooling prey. Ethology, 95, 233–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. and Steene, R.C. (1996) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Sancho, G. (2000) Predatory behaviors of Caranx melampygus (Crangidae) feeding on spawning reef fishes: a novel ambushing strategy. Bulletin of Marine Science 66, 487–496.Google Scholar
Sandin, S.A. and Pacala, S.W. (2005) Fish aggregation results in inversely density dependent predation on continuous coral reefs. Ecology 86, 1520–1530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar