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Animal behaviour

Trust in fish

Nature volume 441, pages 937–938 (2006)Cite this article

A mutually beneficial interaction between two species of fish turns out to involve the careful appraisal of one by the other — and the appropriately virtuous behaviour by the former while being watched.

Many animals, including humans, are scorekeepers, paying close attention to what others do to them and responding in kind. This sort of tit-for-tat reciprocity works well, but is limited to instances involving some sort of direct, one-on-one, interaction. What, however, if organisms could learn about who was trustworthy (or not) by observing others from afar? Such ‘eavesdropping’, as Bshary and Grutter show on page 975 of this issue1, characterizes an amazing case of cooperation through social networking in two species of fish: the cleaner wrasse and the bridled monocle bream.

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Figure 1: Client and cleaner.

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  1. Lee Alan Dugatkin is in the Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, Kentucky, USA

    Lee Alan Dugatkin

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  1. Lee Alan Dugatkin
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Dugatkin, L. Trust in fish. Nature 441, 937–938 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/441937a

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