Archerfish respond to a hunting robotic conspecific

While the unique hunting behavior of archerfish has received considerable scientific attention, the specific social cues that govern behaviors like intraspecific kleptoparasitism in the species are less understood. This paper asks whether the use of a robotic facsimile representing an archerfish can elicit a social response if it approximates an archerfish’s appearance, along with key features of its hunting behavior. We found that the fish respond to the robot when it hunted, as indicated by decreasing distances between the robot and fish (and among the fish) during the robot’s hunting behavior sequence, as well as higher net transfer entropy when the robot was hunting. These effects were present even when the robot’s “hunt” was unproductive and did not result in food. The temporal pattern of fish approach to the robot and each other indicated that the segment of robot hunting behavior proximal to the robotic facsimile shot elicited fish behavior initially. However, earlier cues in the robot’s hunting sequence became important following more experience with a food contingency. This indicates that further studies could use a robotic facsimile to conduct a detailed stimulus analysis, changing aspects of the robot’s appearance and behavior to uncover the basic mechanisms of information transfer among individuals in a social hunting scenario.