Journal Article
Unravelling the origins of boldness behaviour: a common garden experiment with cavefish (Barbatula barbatula)
Jolles, J.W., Böhm, A., Brinker, A. and Behrmann-Godel, J.
Record Number:
6347
Year:
2024
Journal:
Royal Society Open Science
Pages:
1-9
Volume:
11: 231517
Notes:
© 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits
unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited
URL:
royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos
Abstract:
Many animals show an aversion to bright, open spaces,
with significant variability seen across species, populations
and individuals within populations. Although there is much
interest in the underlying causes of this behaviour, few
studies have been able to systematically isolate the role of
heritable and environmental effects. Here, we addressed this
gap using a common garden experiment with cavefish.
Specifically, we bred and cross-bred cave loaches (Barbatula
barbatula), Europe’s only known cavefish, in the laboratory,
raised the offspring in complete darkness or normal light
conditions, and studied their light avoidance behaviour.
Cavefish spent much more time in a light area and ventured
further out, while surface fish spent considerable time in riskassessment
behaviour between the light and dark areas.
Hybrids behaved most similarly to cavefish. Light treatment
and eye quality and lens size only had a modest effect. Our
results suggest light avoidance behaviour of cavefish has a
heritable basis and is fundamentally linked to increased
boldness rather than reduced vision, which is likely adaptive
given the complete lack of macropredators in the cave
environment. Our study provides novel experimental insights
into the behavioural divergence of cavefish and contributes
to our broader understanding of the evolution of boldness
and behavioural adaptation.
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species:
Related Records:
Smyly, W.J.P. (1955)
On the biology of the Stone Loach Nemacheilus barbatula (L.)
Bacesu-Mester, L (1967)Contributions to the study of the genus Noemacheilus (Pisces, Cobitidae)
Perrin, J.F. (1980)Structure et functionement des ecosystemes du Haut-Rhone francaise. 14. etude des preferences alimentaire de la loche franche (Noemacheilus barbatulus L.) par une methode des points modifee
Bless, R. (1985)Zur regeneration von Blachen der Agarlandschaft - Eine ichthyologische Fallstudie
Maitland, P.S. and Campbell, R.N. (1992)Freshwater fishes of the British Isles
Hotzl, H (1996)Origin of the Danube-Aach system
Bromidge, N. (2004)Stone loach Barbatula barbatula
Kottelat, M. and Freyhof, J. (2007)Handbook of European freshwater fishes
Coghlan, A. (2017)First ever cave fish discovered in Europe evolved super-fast
Behrmann-Godel, J., Nolte, A.W., Kreiselmaier, J., Berka, R. and Freyhof, J. (2017)The first European cave fish
Behrmann-Godel, J. and Nolte, A.W. (2018)Evolutiv junge europäische Höhlenfische
Behrmann-Godel, J., Roch, S., Böhm, A., Jolles, J. and Brinker, A. (2023)Phenotypic plasticity and genetic differentiation drive troglomorphic character development in European cave loach
Jolles, J.W., Böhm, A., Brinker, A. and Behrmann-Godel, J. (2024)Unravelling the origins of boldness behaviour: a common garden experiment with cavefish (Barbatula barbatula)
Behrmann-Godel, J., Roch, S., Böhm, A., Jolles, J.W. and Brinker, A. (2024)Genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity drive troglomorphic character development in European cavefish