Acquired predator recognition via epidermal alarm cues but not dietary alarm cues by isolated pupfish.

We tested whether Shoshone pupfish and Amargosa River pupfish respond behaviourally to conspecific chemical alarm cues released when epidermal tissue is damaged by a predator. We found that both subspecies reduced activity and vertical position in the water column in response to alarm cues. We then tested if pupfish can use alarm cue to acquire recognition of a novel predator.

Ignorance is not bliss: evolutionary naiveté in an endangered desert fish and implications for conservation.

Predator naiveté has been invoked to explain the impacts of non-native predators on isolated populations that evolved with limited predation. Such impacts have been repeatedly observed for the endangered Pahrump poolfish, , a desert fish species that evolved in isolation since the end of the Pleistocene. We tested Pahrump poolfish anti-predator responses to conspecific chemical alarm cues released from damaged epidermal tissue in terms of fish activity and water column position.