Loss of seabirds through rat predation affects reef fish hostility and could have wider impacts <\/p>
Globally, invasive rats are one of the major problems affecting seabirds breeding on islands.<\/p>\n
When rats jump ship and colonise, their predation of eggs and chicks can lead to massive slumps in seabird numbers.<\/p>\n
In turn, this makes the rain of seabird poo washing out to surrounding waters shrink from a torrent to a trickle.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, for jewel damselfish living on coral reefs<\/a> there, that affects their habits \u2013 including how they react to other fish.<\/p>\n Jewel damselfish are aggressively territorial and will attack intruders \u2013 even much larger fish \u2013 that stray into territories they hold over small patches of reef. The fish are also capable of \u2018farming\u2019 turf algae that grow on coral branches.<\/p>\n This plant material is their staple food, but not all such algae are equal.<\/p>\n Around islands with healthy seabird populations, the food value is higher, thanks to nutrient boosts from guano.<\/p>\n That allows jewel damselfish to hold smaller territories than on reefs around islands where rats are present and fertiliser from seabirds reduced.<\/p>\n More related content:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Coral reefs guide: what is coral and coral bleaching, and species to spot<\/a><\/p>\n Are rats emotional as well as clever?<\/a><\/p>\n Can fish see in colour?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Do fish make noises?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Now further links between land and sea have been revealed through research reported in Nature Ecology and Evolution<\/em><\/a> by behavioural ecologist Rachel Gunn and co-workers.<\/p>\n This shows that jewel damselfish beside islands where black rats live are also less belligerent in defending their territories.<\/p>\n \u201cJewel damselfish around rat-free islands aggressively defend their turf because the higher enriched nutrient content means they get \u2018more for their money\u2019, and this makes it worth the energy cost needed to defend,\u201d says Gunn.<\/p>\n By contrast, the lower food value of turf algae around rat-infested islands makes it barely worth the effort of territorial defence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe algal farming of damselfish affects the balance of corals and algae on the reef. Their aggression towards other fish can influence the way those fish move around and use the reef,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t yet know what the consequences of this behavioural change will be, but ecosystems evolve a delicate balance over long time-scales, so any disruption could have knock-on consequences for the wider ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n Main image: Researchers from the Universities of Lancaster<\/a> and T\u00fcbingen<\/a> have found that invasive rats alter jewel damselfish behaviour \u00a9 Waterframe\/Getty\u00a0<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Loss of seabirds through rat predation affects reef fish hostility and could have wider impacts <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25079,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-scaled.jpg",2560,1708,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/02\/damselfish-behaviour-is-influenced-by-rats-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Loss of seabirds through rat predation affects reef fish hostility and could have wider impacts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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