Knowing Your Behaviour: The importance of Behavioural Assays in the Characterisation of Chemical Alarm Cues in Fishes and Amphibians

摘要: Predation provides a strong selective pressure that shapes the antipredator responses of aquatic animals. This has led to evolution chemical alarm systems where chemicals released from injured prey evoke enhance survival when encountering predators. The structure cues is unknown and little work been conducted on characterising/identifying them. In this study, we use high performance liquid chromatography separate skin extracts fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) larval grey tree frogs (Hyla vesicolor) then deliver fractions back test animals determine which portions extract leads behaviour. minnows, one fraction evokes behaviour, but in frog tadpoles no single caused These results provide insight into characterisation importance behavioural assays process.