Anthropogenic Noise Makes Eels More Susceptible To Predators
Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 11:43
in Biology & Nature
Slippery as an eel may be a popular phrase but it turns out they are a lot easier to catch when marine vessels make noise nearby. In a Global Change Biology paper, researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Bristol found that fish exposed to playback of ship noise lose crucial responses to predator threats - European eels (anguilla anguilla)were 50% less likely to respond to an ambush from a predator, while those that did had 25% slower reaction times. Those that were pursued by a predator were caught more than twice as quickly when exposed to the noise. read more