Abstract
But fish cognitive ecology did not begin in rivers and streams. Rather, one of the starting points for work on fish cognitive ecology was work done on the use of visual cues by homing pigeons. Prior to working with fish, Victoria Braithwaite helped to establish that homing pigeons rely not just on magnetic and olfactory cues but also on visual cues for successful return to their home loft. Simple, elegant experiments on homing established Victoria's ability to develop experimental manipulations to examine the role of visual cues in navigation by fish in familiar areas. This work formed the basis of a rich seam of work whereby a fish's ecology was used to propose hypotheses and predictions as to preferred cue use, and then cognitive abilities in a variety of fish species, from model systems (Atlantic salmon and sticklebacks) to the Panamanian Brachyraphis episcopi. Cognitive ecology in fish led to substantial work on fish pain and welfare, but was never left behind, with some of Victoria's last work addressed to determining the neural instantiation of cognitive variation.
Highlights
In the past three decades, our understanding of what fish can perceive, attend to, learn, and remember has gone from little and assuming less, to the inclusion of fish in any course on animal cognition
It was work with homing pigeons that first brought about some of the major changes in our current understanding of fish cognition. This is because much of the responsibility for our deepening understanding of the cognitive capacities of fish lies with Victoria Braithwaite, and her story starts with a flock of pigeons
We have two aims: first and foremost, to examine the impact of Victoria Braithwaite’s work on current understanding of orientation and navigation in fish and other vertebrates, and second, to reflect on how bringing this adaptationist view of fish cognition brought fish into the mainstream of a field previously dominated by mammals and birds
Summary
In the past three decades, our understanding of what fish can perceive, attend to, learn, and remember has gone from little and assuming less, to the inclusion of fish in any course on animal cognition. It was work with homing pigeons that first brought about some of the major changes in our current understanding of fish cognition. This is because much of the responsibility for our deepening understanding of the cognitive capacities of fish lies with Victoria Braithwaite, and her story starts with a flock of pigeons. We have two aims: first and foremost, to examine the impact of Victoria Braithwaite’s work on current understanding of orientation and navigation in fish and other vertebrates, and second, to reflect on how bringing this adaptationist view of fish cognition brought fish into the mainstream of a field previously dominated by mammals and birds. Our particular focus on Braithwaite’s work is unabashedly firstly as a memorial to our friend and colleague whose untimely death in 2019 we mourn and because we contend that her work was pivotal in the establishment of fish as mainstream, even conventional, in work on animal cognition
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