The Einstein of the fish world may be the nine-spined stickleback, suggests new research that determined this common European fish possesses an unusually sophisticated capacity for learning not yet documented in any other animal, aside from humans.
The unassuming, small-headed fish proves tiny brains can yield "surprising cognitive abilities," according to project leader Jeremy Kendal, whose team discovered the stickleback can compare the behavior of other fish with its own experiences in order to make better choices.
This learning method, known as "hill-climbing," is necessary for cumulative culture and was thought to be unique to humans.
"Cases such as nut-cracking in chimpanzees, or tool use in New Caledonian crows, are potentially consistent with such a strategy, but the strategy has yet to be shown unambiguously (in these other animals)," Kendal, a Durham University anthropologist, told Discovery News.
For the study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, he and his colleagues caught 270 nine-spined sticklebacks in Leicester, England. The fish were organized into experimental groups. These fish groups then took turns as either free swimmers in a tank with worm-yielding feeders at the end, or as "learners" in a transparent, partitioned-off area of the specially designed tank.
One of the two feeders released more worms than the other. The fish quickly gravitated to this "rich feeder." When these fish then went into the observation semi-circle portion of the tank, the researchers swapped the feeders. The new free swimmers, as before, made a beeline for the feeder with a more plentiful worm reward.
The unassuming, small-headed fish proves tiny brains can yield "surprising cognitive abilities," according to project leader Jeremy Kendal, whose team discovered the stickleback can compare the behavior of other fish with its own experiences in order to make better choices.
This learning method, known as "hill-climbing," is necessary for cumulative culture and was thought to be unique to humans.
"Cases such as nut-cracking in chimpanzees, or tool use in New Caledonian crows, are potentially consistent with such a strategy, but the strategy has yet to be shown unambiguously (in these other animals)," Kendal, a Durham University anthropologist, told Discovery News.
For the study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, he and his colleagues caught 270 nine-spined sticklebacks in Leicester, England. The fish were organized into experimental groups. These fish groups then took turns as either free swimmers in a tank with worm-yielding feeders at the end, or as "learners" in a transparent, partitioned-off area of the specially designed tank.
One of the two feeders released more worms than the other. The fish quickly gravitated to this "rich feeder." When these fish then went into the observation semi-circle portion of the tank, the researchers swapped the feeders. The new free swimmers, as before, made a beeline for the feeder with a more plentiful worm reward.
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