Distinct habitat selection by freshwater morays in tropical rainforest streams

Morays occupy unique interstitial habitats and function as key predators in marine ecosystems. Conversely, there is limited understanding of the ecology of Gymnothorax polyuranodon, the lone representative of the family Muraenidae known to reside in freshwater systems. In this study, we used field‐based encounters over a 3‐year period in three short–steep–coastal–streams of the Australian Wet Tropics to find that most G. polyuranodon individuals (74%) occupied pools, with very few individuals observed in run (23%) or riffle (3%) mesohabitats. Moreover, G. polyuranodon positively selected microhabitats of slow flow (80 cm), while avoiding high flows (>0.5 ms−1) and shallow water (