Studying fish social behavior and cognition: implications for fish welfare and conservation

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Studying fish social behavior and cognition: implications for fish welfare and conservation Rui F. Oliveira1, 2* 1 Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Portugal 2 Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal Within vertebrates teleost fish are the most diverse and plastic taxa in terms of social behavior. With over 29,000 species described so far, one can find all different types of social organization, mating systems and parental care types. Moreover, it is relatively common to find variation of these characters within closely related species, which makes them suitable for comparative studies on the evolution of social behavior (e.g. variation in mating systems and parental care type in African cichlids). Fish are also champions of social plasticity, as can be illustrated by the flexible patterns of sexual expression, as in the case of protrandrous and protogynous sex-change, simultaneous hermaphroditism and intra-sexual variation in the form of discrete alternative male phenotypes. Complex cognitive abilities used in social interactions have also evolved in fish, such as individual recognition, transitive inference and social learning. Therefore, teleosts offer unique opportunities to study both the evolution and the function of social behavior and cognition. In this talk I will summarize the work that our lab has been doing to establish zebrafish as a model organism for the study of social behavior and cognition and I will illustrate how knowledge on this are can be applied to fish welfare and to conservation issues. Keywords: Social Behaviour, Cognition, conservation, Animal Welfare, Teleost fishes Conference: XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015. Presentation Type: Plenary Invited Presentation Topic: Physiology, Behavior and Toxicology Citation: Oliveira RF (2015). Studying fish social behavior and cognition: implications for fish welfare and conservation. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XV European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2015.03.00226 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 16 Dec 2015; Published Online: 16 Dec 2015. * Correspondence: PhD. Rui F Oliveira, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa, Portugal, ruiol@ispa.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Rui F Oliveira Google Rui F Oliveira Google Scholar Rui F Oliveira PubMed Rui F Oliveira Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.