Schooling fish: Wild zebrafish assess risk through
social learning  Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 11:08 in
Psychology & Sociology  Individuals in some species learn
information about food, predators, and potential mates
indirectly from conspecifics, without taking unnecessary risks
by learning directly for themselves ('social learning'). Sarah
Zala and Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of
Ethology of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
investigated whether zebrafish use social learning to assess
risk ('boldness/shyness' behaviour). They found that wild
zebrafish, which are more timid than their domesticated
counterparts, became emboldened after interacting with
domesticated zebrafish. The opposite did not occur, however.
When the bolder domesticated zebrafish came in contact with wild
zebrafish, they did not become more cautious. The study is
published in the current issue of the journal Animal Behaviour.
To test fish disposition, the scientists scored "boldness" as
the response to