Abstract The behaviour of animals is strongly influenced by the detection of cues relating to foraging opportunity or to risk, while the social environment plays a crucial role in mediating their behavioural responses. Despite this, the role of the social environment in the behaviour of non-grouping animals has received far less attention than in social species. Here, we present the results of an experiment on a cryptic species of goby ( Pseudogobius sp.), which does not form social groups in its natural habitat. Gobies were presented sequentially with chemical cues relating to food, conspecific alarm and control, while in the presence of conspecifics. The intermittent locomotory behaviour of the gobies, which is typical of many cryptic animals, was influenced by the type of cues presented. Gobies decreased the duration of bouts of stasis in the presence of food cues and were generally more active. By contrast, those detecting alarm cues decreased the duration of movement bouts and were generally less active. In line with previous studies involving shoaling species, gobies in the presence of food cues adopted a more dispersed distribution, while clustering together in the presence of alarm cues. Finally, we used calculations of transfer entropy as a means of inferring information transfer among experimental subjects. In contrast to previous studies that have focused on social species, transfer entropy between gobies was detectable only in the conspecific alarm treatment. Taken together, our results show that members of this cryptic species detect and respond to chemical cues by adjusting their movement and distancing to conspecifics. Furthermore, they augment their own information with social cues but only when they perceive a threat. Significance statement Animals are routinely exposed to an array of cues within their environment that convey valuable information about risk and foraging opportunities and must adapt their behaviour accordingly. To facilitate this, animals often use information arising from the behaviour of conspecifics to inform their own responses; however, this has rarely been considered in species which do not exhibit strong grouping tendencies. We used a non-shoaling fish, the goby ( Pseudogobius sp.), to examine both their responses to ecologically relevant cues and the effect of the social environment on these responses. The gobies adapted their distances relative to one another according to the cues present and responded most strongly to information arising from conspecifics (measured as transfer entropy) in the presence of a potential threat. This demonstrates the potential importance of social information even to species that do not live in social groups with others of their own kind.

中文翻译：

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运动、相互作用和信息传递因神秘鱼类的环境而异

摘要 动物的行为受到与觅食机会或风险相关线索的检测的强烈影响，而社会环境在调解它们的行为反应方面起着至关重要的作用。尽管如此，社会环境在非分组动物行为中的作用远不如社会物种受到关注。在这里，我们展示了对一种神秘的虾虎鱼 ( Pseudogobius sp.) 进行的实验结果，这种虾虎鱼不会在其自然栖息地形成社会群体。在同种动物存在的情况下，虾虎鱼被依次呈现与食物、同种警报和控制相关的化学线索。虾虎鱼的间歇性运动行为是许多神秘动物的典型特征，受到所呈现线索类型的影响。在食物提示存在的情况下，虾虎鱼减少了停滞的持续时间，并且通常更活跃。相比之下，那些检测到警报提示的人减少了运动的持续时间，并且通常不太活跃。与先前涉及浅滩物种的研究一致，存在食物线索的虾虎鱼采用更分散的分布，而在存在警报线索的情况下聚集在一起。最后，我们使用传输熵的计算作为推断实验对象之间信息传输的手段。与之前关注社会物种的研究相比，虾虎鱼之间的转移熵只能在同种警报处理中检测到。总之，我们的结果表明，这种神秘物种的成员通过调整它们的运动和与同种的距离来检测和响应化学线索。此外，他们会通过社交线索来增加自己的信息，但仅限于他们感知到威胁时。重要性声明 动物经常暴露于环境中的一系列线索，这些线索传达了有关风险和觅食机会的宝贵信息，因此必须相应地调整其行为。为了促进这一点，动物经常使用来自同种行为的信息来告知它们自己的反应。然而，在没有表现出强烈分组倾向的物种中很少考虑到这一点。我们使用了一种非浅滩鱼，即虾虎鱼 (Pseudogobius sp.)，来检查它们对生态相关线索的反应以及社会环境对这些反应的影响。虾虎鱼根据存在的线索调整彼此之间的距离，并且在存在潜在威胁的情况下对来自同种（以转移熵衡量）产生的信息反应最强烈。这证明了社会信息的潜在重要性，甚至对于那些不与同类生活在社会群体中的物种也是如此。