Predator recognition learning by northern redbelly dace Chrosomus eos from a small kettle lake with a dynamic predator community

Abstract

Predation, and the risk of predation, shape the ecology, behavior, and evolution of many species. Small fishes navigate a perilous landscape of risk in the shallow waters of the littoral zone. Moreover, in small lakes, the predator community can be dynamic due to stochastic colonization and extirpation events. These conditions select for the ability by small fish to acquire recognition of novel predators through associative learning. Chemical cues associated with predation events, such as damage-released chemical cues from conspecifics, and the odor of predators, inform prey of the presence of risk, and facilitate acquired recognition of novel predator odor. Deming Lake, MN, is a small meromictic lake with intermittent connections to neighboring lakes in the watershed. Annual sampling of the littoral fish community between the years 2000 and 2023 reveals a history of colonization and extirpation by relatively large-bodied species such as yellow perch Perca flavescens and pumpkinseed sunfish Lepomis gibbosus. Ice cover data, combined with limnological depth profiles of dissolved oxygen, confirm that dissolved oxygen is limiting during the winter and consistent with the hypothesis that extirpation of large-bodied species in Deming Lake is likely due to winter anoxia. These data set the stage for an experimental demonstration of acquired recognition of the odor of allopatric rock bass Ambloplites rupestris by bass-naïve northern redbelly dace Chrosomus eos from Deming Lake. Rock bass have been absent from Deming Lake since at least the year 2000. Predator-recognition learning allows redbelly dace, and many other small-bodied fishes that face variable predator species over ontogenetic, spatial, and temporal scales, a mechanism to adapt quickly to indicators of predation risk.