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First published online February 29, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 866-872 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.014324
Prey detection by great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) in clear and in turbid water
1 Department of Biology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
32000, Israel
2 Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa,
Haifa 31905, Israel
3 Department of Biology, University of Haifa at Oranim, Tivon 36006,
Israel
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: gkatzir{at}research.haifa.ac.il)
Accepted 10 January 2008
| Summary |
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34.2' (prey
size constant; distance varied) and 9.5' (distance constant; prey size
varied). For all tested distances (0.8–3.1 m) the mean detection success
was significantly higher than the chance level. The probability of a correct
choice declined significantly with increased distance, with Detection
success=–0.034D+1.021 (where D is distance,
r2=0.5, N=70, P<0.001). The combined
effect of turbidity and distance on the probability of detection success was
significant, with both variables having a negative effect: Detection
success=–0.286D–0.224Tu+1.691 (where Tu is turbidity,
r2=0.68, N=144, P<0.001). At prey
detection threshold, the relationship between distance and turbidity was:
D=3.79e–4.55Tu. It is concluded that (i) the
subtending angle of natural prey at detection was lower than that of
resolution of square-wave, high-contrast grating and (ii) turbidity, at levels
significantly lower than commonly used in behavioural experiments, had a
pronounced effect on visually mediated behaviour patterns.
Key words: cormorant, aquatic vision, underwater visual resolution, water turbidity, underwater prey detection
| INTRODUCTION |
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|
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Natural water bodies contain suspended and dissolved matter, both organic
and inorganic, which further scatters and absorbs light, alters its chromatic
characteristics and results in apparent turbidity. In the light path between
an object and an observer in turbid water, scatter results in a decrease in
the light intensity reaching the eye while ambient light intensity is
increased. Consequently, turbidity adds to the deterioration in the quality of
an observed image through the reduction in the intensity of light reflected
off objects and the consequent loss of contrast and spatial information
(Gazey, 1970
;
Duntley, 1974
;
Vogel and Beauchamp, 1999
).
With increased concentration of suspended matter the light intensity reflected
off an object will equal that from the water itself, thus reducing contrast to
the point of the object being indiscernible
(Gazey, 1970
;
Duntley, 1974
;
Muntz and Lythgoe, 1974
).
Visual range, i.e. the maximal distance at which an animal is capable of
detecting a target, is commonly used as a measure of the animal's visual
capacity under given photic conditions. Visual range is determined by target
features such as size and motion, by the animal's optical and visual systems,
by the physical properties of a particular stimulus situation such as the
medium's absorption and scatter, and by the behaviour of the observer such as
its direction of gaze. An indicator frequently used for an animal's visual
range is its reactive distance – the distance at which the animal
performs a specified behaviour pattern indicative of its detecting a given
target (Aksnes and Giske, 1997
;
Utne-Palm, 1999
;
Vogel and Beauchamp, 1999
;
Mazur and Beauchamp, 2003
).
The biological implications of visual range are broad, including females'
capacity to detect a courting male or the capacity of predators and prey to
detect each other.
Studies of underwater vision in vertebrates have mostly focused on
predation by fishes on invertebrate prey (e.g.
Utne-Palm, 1999
;
Van de Meutter et al., 2005
)
while relatively few studies have tested the reactive distance of piscivorous
fishes to fish prey (e.g. Abrahams and
Kattenfeld, 1997
; Radke and
Gauspisch, 2005
) or to other visual stimuli. Moreover, the effects
of turbidity, an all-important determinant of underwater vision
(Gazey, 1970
;
Lythgoe, 1979
;
Aksnes and Giske, 1993
;
Vogel and Beauchamp, 1999
;
Radke and Gaupisch, 2005
),
have been surprisingly little studied within this general framework.
In the two-spotted goby, Gobiusculus flavescens, both decreased
illumination and increased turbidity have a negative effect on reactive
distance to copepod prey, with the longest reaction distances observed at
intermediate turbidity levels (Utne,
1997
). Prey contrast and mobility result in an increase in
reactive distance, with both being independent of turbidity levels. For
high-contrast, mobile prey the longest reactive distance was also observed at
intermediate turbidity levels (Utne-Palm,
1999
). In comparison, the reactive distance of the piscivorous
lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) to salmonid prey increased rapidly
with increased light levels and then levelled off and declined as a decaying
power function of turbidity. For the range of prey size tested, reactive
distance was not affected by prey size
(Vogel and Beauchamp,
1999
).
Birds depend heavily on vision for their activities
(Pough et al., 1995
;
Davies and Green, 1994
;
Hodos, 1994
; Lee, 1993;
Frost et al., 1994
;
Ghim and Hodos, 2006
) and it
is expected that species that pursue their fish prey underwater will also rely
on vision underwater. This is supported by the observations that pursuit
divers (e.g. penguins, Spheniscus sp.; mergansers, Mergus
sp.; cormorants, Phalacrocorax sp.) perform rapid and precise
visuo-motor tasks during prey capture, which implies retention of a sharp
enough retinal image underwater (Katzir
and Howland, 2003
; Strod et
al., 2004
). The cornea is the principal refracting component of
the eye in the air, yet upon submergence it is rendered virtually ineffective
because its refractive index is similar to that of water. In amphibious
species such as mergansers and cormorants the lens, now bearing the full
refractive function (Levy and Sivak,
1980
), is highly pliable and upon submergence undergoes a change
in form that may well compensate for corneal loss of power
(Hess, 1909
;
Walls, 1967
;
Levy and Sivak, 1980
;
Glasser and Howland, 1996
;
Kroger and Katzir, 2007
).
Consequently these species retain a state of emmetropia both in air and
underwater (Katzir and Howland,
2003
).
Visual detection and resolution have been little studied in amphibious
avian species (Sivak et al.,
1987
). In great cormorants, visual resolution for high-contrast
stimuli (square-wave gratings) in clear water was lower than in air
(Strod, 2002
;
Strod et al., 2004
).
Cormorants' underwater resolution remained well within the mid to low range of
other avian species in air and within the higher range reported for fishes and
for diving mammals (Muntz,
1990
; Guthrie and Muntz,
1993
; Strod et al.,
2004
). Water turbidity was found to have a negative, linear effect
on the cormorants' grating resolution at a given distance of testing. Most
important, this effect was apparent at low turbidity levels (ca. 1
NTU; nephlometric turbidity units). Processes that underlie resolution differ,
however, from those that underlie detection. Consequently, the capacity to
visually detect prey (a fish) cannot be derived immediately from grating
resolution. An example of this is that a target may be detected at resolution
levels well below those required for determining their details.
We here determined visual detection of natural prey (fish) underwater in
great cormorants. Because certain waterbirds employ mechano- and
chemoreception to detect prey [e.g. Piersma et al.
(Piersma et al., 1998
);
Tubinares – Procelariiformes], experiment I aimed at determining the
role of vision in prey detection. Experiments II and III aimed at determining
the effects on detection of prey size and distance, and thus of apparent prey
size. In experiment II, apparent prey size was altered by keeping prey size
constant while varying the viewing distance, whereas in experiment III, prey
size was changed while viewing distance was kept constant. In both experiments
the subtending angle of the prey at the point of viewing was varied but in
experiment III, although not in experiment II, this was accompanied by a
change in the passage length of image-forming light. The effect of this
passage length in air is mostly minimal yet underwater it has important
consequences (see Lythgoe,
1979
). Finally, in experiment IV we tested for the combined effect
on prey detection of low-level turbidity and of prey distance.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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The experimental setup
The experimental system comprised a water pool (5 mx8 m, 1.5 m in
depth), divided into two sections by a concrete wall and covered by an opaque
cover and an adjacent aviary (6 m in length, 5.4 m in width, 6 m in height).
The setup for the tests (see Fig.
1) comprised a pre-test pool (1) and a test pool (2),
inter-connected by an underwater trapdoor (3) with circulating freshwater. A
Y-maze tunnel (4) of rigid mesh (50 cmx50 cm in cross-section) was
placed on the pool's floor (depth 1–1.5 m), with its entrance at the
trapdoor and with each Y-arm opening to one stimulus box (5). The maximal
distance from the Y-junction to the prey boxes, as determined by the length of
the experimental pool, was 3.1 m. In each trial, a bird would swim into the
Y-maze, make a choice while in motion towards the Y-junction, continue through
the chosen maze arm to the stimulus box and return underwater to the pre-test
pool. The stimulus boxes (32 cmx32 cmx25 cm depth) were of opaque
meshed plastic with a transparent Perspex front pane (32 cmx32 cm) that
could be moved up and down.
|
In experiment I, live fish were held in a semi-transparent, shallow mesh basket behind the front pane, which restricted the fish so that its body axis was parallel to the pane and at its centre. In experiments II, III and IV the positive stimuli were dead fish, impaled on the tip of a transparent, flexible plastic rod. Fish were separated into the required size groups and their length (between 3 and 9 cm) was finely set by cutting of the caudal peduncle.
Procedures
Training and testing procedures are provided in detail in Strod et al.
(Strod et al., 2004
) and in
Table 1. On each test day nine
trials for each tested individual were run. The order of presentation was
pseudo-random (Zar, 1984
) with
the positive stimulus (fish) presented at the distal end of the respective arm
of the Y-maze (Fig. 1). A
restriction of no more than two consecutive presentations of a stimulus on any
given side was imposed.
|
In experiment I, the front pane of the prey box was of visually opaque thin black fabric stretched on a Perspex frame. The prey was a live or dead fish (carp, Cyprinus carpio, or Tilapia), 12 cm in body length. In the control tests, the front doors were of transparent Perspex. The distance between the Y-junction and the prey boxes was 1.4 m. and the water was kept at maximal clarity (turbidity level less than 0.5 NTU).
In experiment II, the prey presented was a dead fish 9 cm in length and the water was kept at maximal clarity (turbidity level ca. 0.5 NTU). For each distance tested (i.e. between 0.8 and 3.1 m), between 1 and 3 days were required to reach the significant level of correct choice. For each bird, the results presented are those of the last 2 test days (i.e. final 18 trials). In experiment III, dead fish were presented at a distance of 3.1 m from the Y-junction. Based on their total length, the fish were assigned into groups of between 9 and 3 cm at 1 cm increments. In experiment IV, the positive stimuli were dead fish 9 cm in length. Water turbidity levels were experimentally controlled between 0.3 and 4.5 NTU, and distance to the target was from 0.8 to 2.8 m.
Fish total length was measured to the nearest 0.1 cm using calipers. The relationship of total length (x) to maximal body height (y) followed the equation: y=0.453x–0.323. The height of the stimulus fish was taken as indicative of visual resolution, providing the minimal dimension presented to the bird.
To determine the possible effect of the prey boxes, two experiments were run with prey held in transparent Perspex cylinders, radius 15 cm.
Illumination and turbidity
Tests were conducted under natural, diffuse, high-level illumination.
Down-welling underwater illumination was measured at the Y-junction using a
Li-Cor L-189 photometer (Lincoln, NE, USA) with a quantum sensor directed
upwards and providing readings in µEin m–2
s–1 units. Because the spectral sensitivity of the cormorants
is not fully known (Hart,
2001
), these readings were converted to human photopic lux units,
based on the manufacturer's conversion table. The illumination levels in the
tests ranged between 0.77 and 2.20 klx, well above the levels known to affect
visual resolution in other birds (Hodos et al., 1976;
Rounsley and McFadden, 2005
;
Ghim and Hodos, 2006
). The
level of water turbidity was controlled by suspending a measured amount of
fine-grained soil in a double-layered fabric bag in the re-circulating water
current of the experimental pool, 20 h prior to each trial. Water turbidity
was measured daily, before, during and after the tests. Measurements were made
by a portable turbidimeter (Hach 2100P, Loveland, CO, USA) having a range of
0–10 NTU and a resolution of 0.1 NTU. The contrast of fish to the
background was 0.46±0.06 (mean ± s.e.m.), calculated as
C=(IF–IB)/(IF+IB)
where I is illuminance, B is background and F is
fish. IF and IB were measured from
underwater digitized photographs (Sony CCD-TR440E video camera, Japan), using
Adobe Photoshop 5.0 software.
Analysis
The proportion of trials in which the positive stimulus side (i.e. the fish
side) was chosen was taken as a measure of prey detection. Based on binomial
distribution (Zar, 1984
), the
critical proportion (critical value) for significant detection was set at 0.75
for experiments with 18 trials, and at 0.77 for experiments with nine trials.
If the proportion of correct choices exceeded these respective critical values
it was taken as implying significant prey detection. These values are
comparable to critical values commonly used in behavioural tests of visual
detection (Schusterman and Balliet,
1970
; Reymond,
1985
; Hodos, 1994
;
Ghim and Hodos, 2006
). The
results for prey detection in clear water (experiments I, II and III) are from
the first 2 consecutive days (i.e. 18 trials) during which a cormorant reached
the criterion level (i.e. the critical value 0.75 of correct choices). If the
bird failed to reach the criterion level, the results of the final 2 days of
the experiment (i.e. days 4 and 5) were used in the analysis. The results
presented for prey detection in turbid water (experiment IV) are for the
single test day (9 trials). The limit of detection for each of the tested
distances was determined from the intersect of the line depicting the critical
value with the line connecting the last data point above it, and the first
point below it.
Video analysis had shown (Strod et al.,
2004
) that when approaching the target underwater there was a
distinct point at which the cormorants most probably made their decision as to
which target to choose (i.e. their `reactive distance'). This was typified by
a sharp turning of the head towards the target in the otherwise straight path.
This point was 67±3 cm before the Y-junction. We used this value in our
calculation of subtending angles at the point of detection. This value was not
applied to the situation of turbid water because the point of head turning
could not be observed.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
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|
Experiment II: the effect on detection of apparent prey size (a)
In this experiment, apparent prey size was altered by keeping prey size
constant while varying the viewing distance. The results show that prey
detection was significant (P<0.05) to a distance of 2.8 m for all
six cormorants, while at 3.1 m it was significant in five of the birds
(Fig. 3). The bird that failed
at 3.1 m had achieved the highest visual resolution score when previously
tested on square-wave gratings (Strod et
al., 2004
). As its failure here seemed not to stem from perceptual
incapacity, it was excluded from the analysis of the 3.1 m distance.
|
Experiment III: the effect on detection of apparent prey size (b)
In this experiment, apparent prey size was altered by varying prey size
while keeping the viewing distance constant. The results of this experiment
show that all prey sizes (i.e. 9 to 3 cm in length) were significantly
(P<0.05) detected by four of the cormorants
(Fig. 4) while one individual
failed to detect the smallest sized fish. Thus, the cormorants could detect a
3 cm long (i.e. 1.03 cm in height) fish at a distance of 3.1 m. This provides
a minimal subtending angle at detection of 11.5'. As the use of fish
smaller than 3 cm in length was technically not possible, and correcting for
added distance at the point of head flip, the minimal subtending angle at
detection was
9.45' (3.17 cycles per degree). It is clear that in
this experiment the cormorants had not yet reached their detection limit as
the prey was large enough and the visual distance in the water short enough to
allow prey detection.
|
Underwater visual resolution for high-contrast, square-wave gratings
determined for these same cormorants under high natural (sunlight)
illumination was ca. 6.3'
(Strod et al., 2004
). This is
a smaller subtending angle than that achieved here for the single target (prey
fish). Comparably, White et al. (White et
al., 2007
) provide a resolution value of 11.8' for great
cormorants tested on high-contrast square-wave gratings, under artificial
ambient illumination of 1.4 lx and turbidity levels of
1 NTU. [Note that
in figure 4 of White et al.
(White et al., 2007
) the
cormorants resolved a ca. 4 mm grating at a distance of 2 m, which
corresponds to a subtending angle of ca. 6'.]
A comparison between the detection of a real prey and the resolution of
square-wave gratings is not applicable. This is because it is not possible to
determine the minimal angular resolution, which is the distance between two
points that can just be visually discerned, from a single object. The
differences in target dimension (length, height) will result in the birds
being presented with a range of spatial frequencies, and increasing the
distance (experiment II) will decrease the contrast while raising the spatial
frequency spectrum. Also, a single small object contains quite low spatial
frequencies, making it possible to detect it without resolving it. Moreover,
differences between the situations are also expected because (i) in the
experiments above the cormorants had not reached their maximal capacity of
detection and (ii) the contrast of the prey to the background in the present
experiments was considerably lower than that for the gratings used by Strod et
al. (Strod et al., 2004
).
Experiment IV: the effects on prey detection of low-level water turbidity and prey distance
Underwater visibility is known to decrease with an increasing concentration
of suspended material (Gazey,
1970
; Duntley,
1974
; Abrahams and Kattenfeld,
1997
; Horppila et al.,
2004
), especially under direct light
(Jagger and Muntz, 1993
). In
experiment IV, a rapid decrease in prey detection with increased turbidity for
each tested distance was observed (Fig.
5). The effect of turbidity on detection seems to be not linear
but rather a step-wise function. The combined effect of turbidity and distance
on the probability of detection success was significant, with both variables
having a negative effect: Detection
success=–0.286D–0.224Tu+1.691 (where Tu is turbidity in
NTU, r2=0.68, N=144, P<0.001). The
maximal turbidity at which a significant detection was retained for each
distance was determined by interpolation. Plotting the cut-off values for all
distances against turbidity yielded an exponential decrease in detection
distance: D=3.79e–4.55Tu
(Fig. 6).
|
|
The effects of turbidity levels lower than 5 NTU on underwater visual
capacities have been little studied. However, the results here clearly
indicate that at levels lower than 1 NTU the cormorants had already lost more
than 25% of their potential detection distance, and at 3.3 NTU a 74% decrease
would be suffered. Levels of between 0 and 1 NTU are mostly regarded as `clear
water' and behavioural tests in which turbidity levels are >5 NTU or even
an order of magnitude higher are common (but see
Vogel and Beauchamp, 1999
).
This calls for greater caution with regard to turbidity levels in future
experimental procedures that are biologically meaningful. The decline observed
here was steeper than that found for fish (
82% at 5 NTU)
(Miner and Stein, 1996
). When
the prey was better lit (in the transparent prey boxes) the maximal turbidity
under which detection was still retained was higher by only 0.5 NTU
(Fig. 5), indicating that the
results in this set-up could change little under higher illumination
(Vogel and Beauchamp, 1999
).
When turbidity approached the `detection limit', the increased difficulty in
the birds' decision making was expressed in the increased variance in the
proportion of correct choices.
Measurements of turbidity by light attenuation may not suffice for
experiments on visually guided tasks. This is because at low-level
turbidities, visibility may deteriorate if the scattering coefficient of the
particles is high and the absorption coefficient is low. Underwater visibility
is especially affected by turbidity under direct light
(Jagger and Muntz, 1993
) and
it is possible that the intensity of the underwater ambient light will
increase at low-level turbidities due to light reflection by suspended
particles, as is the case with light fog in air. The contrast will be reduced
through increased ambient light levels between the eye and the object, and
thus visibility will decline. Reduced prey detection under turbid conditions,
shown in the present study, lends further support to the role of vision in
aquatic predator–prey interactions. Turbidity may alter the colour of
both predator and prey, reduce fish reactive distance to their prey
(Vinyard and O'Brien, 1976
;
Barret et al., 1992
;
Miner and Stein, 1996
;
Gregory and O'Brien, 1983
;
Abrahams and Kattenfeld, 1997
)
and, most probably, has a role in the choice of foraging sites by cormorants
(Van Eerden and Voslamber,
1995
).
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
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