Invasive species control is notoriously challenging, especially in lakes and rivers where native fish and other wildlife have limited options for escape. Soaring mosquitofish populations in freshwater lakes and rivers worldwide have decimated native fish and amphibian populations, and attempts to control the species through toxicants or trapping often fail or cause harm to local wildlife. Researchers have published the first experiments to gauge the ability of a biologically inspired robotic fish to induce fear-related changes in mosquitofish. Their findings indicate that even brief exposure to a robotic replica of the mosquitofish’s primary predator—the largemouth bass—can provoke meaningful stress responses in mosquitofish, triggering avoidance behaviors and physiological changes associated with the loss of energy reserves, potentially translating into lower rates of reproduction.
The team exposed groups of mosquitofish to a robotic largemouth bass for one 15-minute session per week for six consecutive weeks. The robot’s behavior varied between trials, spanning several degrees of biomimicry. Notably, in some trials, the researchers programmed the robot to incorporate real-time feedback based on interactions with live mosquitofish and to exhibit “attacks” typical of predatory behavior—a rapid increase in swimming speed. Researchers tracked interactions between the live fish and the replica in real time and analyzed them to reveal correlations between the degree of biomimicry in the robot and the level of stress response the live fish exhibited. Fear-related behaviors in mosquitofish include freezing (not swimming), hesitancy in exploring open spaces that are unfamiliar, and potentially dangerous, and erratic swimming patterns.
Credits:
https://www.futurity.org/invasive-species-robot-fish-2161452/
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