April 26, 2013
"Groupers Use Gestures to Recruit Morays For Hunting Team-Ups."
"The two fish cooperate to flush out their prey. The grouper’s bursts of speed make it deadly in open water, while the moray’s sinuous body can flush out prey in cracks and crevices. When they hunt at the same time, prey fish have nowhere to flee."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
19 comments:
These damn gang signs... they're even being used in the animal kingdom.
;)
------
Jokes aside, I've seen plenty of cases of spontaneous cooperative hunting. Tuna and one other predator (some of the various billfish species, maybe? Can't remember...) often go after the same bait schools. But I've not ever heard of active communication between different species of predators yet. That's amazing.
Nature red in fang gets the job done. Killing prey genes must be in DNA of all creatures. Nature is a kill or be killed proposition.
Which reminds me of the Screaming Eagle working as a team with a high altitude Killer Eagle.
And that is similar to Carlson's Raiders Patrol tactics used in jungle on Guadalcanal tracking a Japanese Brigade that was marching through the jungle to get behind the Marines.
Carlson's Chinese tactic was to march parallel to the superior force and then strike at its rear guard causing the column to turn and go back into the fight whereupon the Raiders attacked the Japs from the flank, and then disappeared until doing it over again, and over again.
Republicans and Democrats.
The eel flushes prey out for the grouper.....and? I'm sure I'm missing something - but what does the eel get out of it?
I've always found groupers to be kind of bossy so it's nice that science finally backs me up.
Maybe science will someday prove my dog uses gestures to boss me around.
garage mahal said...
The eel flushes prey out for the grouper.....and? I'm sure I'm missing something - but what does the eel get out of it?
The eel does not try to flush the prey, it tries to eat the prey. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it fails. In the times that it fails the prey is flushed, and the grouper gets a shot at it.
The eel does not try to flush the prey, it tries to eat the prey. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it fails. In the times that it fails the prey is flushed, and the grouper gets a shot at it.
I fail to see why the eel needs the grouper for anything. The eel is getting suckered if it cooperates with the grouper.
Aaaaand I just read the comment at the link asking the same thing.
> I fail to see why the eel needs the grouper for anything. The eel is getting suckered if it cooperates with the grouper.
The grouper chases fish into the rocks for the eel. The eel chases fish out of the rocks for the grouper.
garage mahal said...
I fail to see why the eel needs the grouper for anything. The eel is getting suckered if it cooperates with the grouper.
The grouper's presence drives the small fish into the reef to hide. The small fish are too fast for the eel to catch them in the open water.
There you go. Reading the article I was assuming the prey fish were already in the rocks.
Maybe the eel is just pleased to be invited somewhere. Who loves an eel really? Except perhaps a certain sub-culture of gay men.
The Bloods and the Crips.
Or the 1939 Polish Campaign.
Really cool! I observed this behavior on two separate dives. The groupers were clearly following the eels and I filmed it intending to ask an expert about. So thrilled to see that there was something going on.
When they team with a grouper
And the hunting is super
That's a moray
When they team with a grouper
And the hunting is super
That's a moray
Spectacular!
I've eaten them both and they're tasty. Neither are difficult to catch, like say the wiley trout. And, both are quite tasty. Eel is sweet ala rabbit. Eel is a traditional Italian dish among some coastal regions.
Sella, Bravo!
Post a Comment