[Daily News] The Talk of the Sea

dava

From: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/1130/2
By Noreen Parks
ScienceNOW Daily News
30 November 2006

It seems the harder scientists listen to animals, the more they end up eavesdropping on their conversations. Take butterflyfishes—flamboyantly colored, hand-sized denizens of coral reefs, known for their monogamy, gregariousness, and fierce territoriality. New research, reported Wednesday at the joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and Acoustical Society of Japan, shows that butterflyfishes make a variety of sounds to communicate among themselves. The fish may have evolved unique anatomy to enhance their use of sound, the researchers say.
All fish have internal "ears," air-filled swim bladders sensitive to sound waves, and "lateral line" sense organs that detect motion in surrounding water. However, only in one genus of butterflyfishes are these body parts connected—a discovery made some years ago. Scientists have speculated that the unusual anatomical arrangement is involved in sound perception, but no one knew what role, if any, sound plays in butterflyfish lives.

To find out, marine biologist Tim Tricas of the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and colleagues dove to a Hawaii reef and located several pairs of banded butterflyfish (Chaetodon multicinctus) observed maintaining feeding territories. In multiple experiments, the researchers placed one pair in a glass bottle and positioned the bottle inside another pair's territory for up to 40 minutes. The results, recorded by a video camera and underwater microphone, revealed territory defenders aggressively charging the intruders, while making rapid, sound-generating moves, such as flicking and erecting their fins, "jumping," and turning. In response, the bottled fish grunted repeatedly. Only paired fish grunted—not single individuals—so Tricas suspects grunts are distress signals to mates.

In another experiment, the researchers injected tiny amounts of petroleum jelly into the swim bladders of butterflyfish pairs, interrupting the transmission of sound through the swim bladder to their ears and lateral lines. Treated pairs swam significantly closer together than untreated pairs, suggesting that their ability to sense any sound from each other was compromised. Given butterflyfishes' unusually social nature, they may have evolved their novel anatomical connections to facilitate communication, Tricas adds.

The connections between sound production and social behavior had gone unnoticed despite intense field study of this fish group over several decades, says Jacqueline Webb, a marine biologist at the University of Rhode Island. The findings underscore the need "to consider the sound dimension of reef communities when contemplating not only the behavior and ecology of animal populations, but the increasing impacts of human noise on the underwater

perch88

What a joke

Fish group has been working on this for several decades and ruined the ecology of underwater. I guess they may have a special tent 'live' and hide. poor fishes... I like Nimo.

dava

I remember a movie about love, and there is a scene that a young man pretended to talk to fish about his life. Maybe that fish can feel something, right?

perch88

Yeah. I believe that any animal has its feeling of which we can feel only a small portion. This partly explained why most people would like to have a pet, like dog or cat, if they can afford.

I have a friend, a veterinary, who has been single for a long long time. She adopted a crippled black dog and talk to him sometimes. She will take him to work and the log, William or some name, will stay in the car when she is working in the clinic.    What I wanna say here is that she usually grumbles to William and the he will look at her full of love. They are like couple except that they have Utopian 'love'.

dava

Your friend's story make me believe that to be a good listener is much more important than a teller

perch88

Noop..
I don't wanna be a dog (I just wrote god...) anyway..  but I like dog. They are honest and has bright & black eyes. I like staring at their eyes and we have conversations by eye contact
As a woman, I don't wanna be a listener even..

What a nightmare here! :P

dava

However, you know, some people believe that conmunicating with dogs is easier than with people around them.  
eye contact.. I see, is it one important difference between Americans and we chinese?

perch88

Not really. We communicate better than with dogs at least. hehe

Thats true. Americans like to express their feelings in a very nice and comfortable way. Sometimes when I am upset or angry, listening to the VOA or the jokes will calm myself down. They are educated to have that merit, which we Chinese lack and hard to get.