High IQ Fish

06/25/2009

Everyone knows that some animals are pretty smart.  Think dolphins, elephants, parrots or apes.  We humans are ok sharing the intelligent title with fellow warm-blooded animals like these mammals and birds, the so-called “higher animals.”  But a new study shows that a tiny, common fish called the nine-spined stickleback are no slouches in the brain department.  In fact, they might have thinking abilities that even birds and mammals lack.

Nine-spined sticklebacks weren’t anyone’s first guess for a cold-blooded animal with smarts.  Despite that, scientists have demonstrated these fish watch other sticklebacks and compare how successful those fish are at getting food from a given source with their own experience with that same source. 

If another fish is more successful, they’ll abandon their own preferred food patch and adopt that of other fish even if they had a different experience in that food patch previously. 

Other animals might follow or even copy others if they’ve found a good food source, but the nine-spined stickleback does more than copy or follow; it makes a cognitive decision to follow or not.  So far this type of social learning ability has only been found in humans.

This is another pretty cool reminder that we aren’t the only ones on the planet with brainpower!

If you're interested in amazing fish like the stickleback, then don't miss River Monsters!