RESEARCH ARTICLE
Do You Eat or Not? Predation Behaviour of European Catfish (Silurus glanis) Toward Live Bait on a Hook
Stéphanie Boulêtreau1, 2, Pascal Verdeyroux3, Elise Lorthiois1, 2, Frédéric Azémar1, 2, Arthur Compin1, 2, Frédéric Santoul1, 2, *
1 Université de Toulouse, UPS, INP, EcoLab (Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), 118, Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France
3 EPIDOR (Etablissement Public Interdépartemental Dordogne), Place de la laïcité, 24250 Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, France
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 9
First Page: 8
Last Page: 14
Publisher Id: TOFISHSJ-9-8
DOI: 10.2174/1874401X01609010008
Article History:
Received Date: 31/8/2015Revision Received Date: 13/11/2015
Acceptance Date: 17/11/2015
Electronic publication date: 25/3/2016
Collection year: 2016
© Boulêtreau et al. Licensee Bentham Open.
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
We filmed and analysed, in natural and field conditions, behaviours of large-bodied European catfish (Silurus glanis) individuals (body size ranging from 80 to 220 cm) exposed to a hook baited with 20 cm-long Carassius spp. Among a total of 95 individuals observed, 80 % of the catfish clearly demonstrated interest in the bait but attacks were performed only 25 % of the time and only 12.5 % of fish were hooked. More than half of the individuals (55 %) were observed swimming toward the bait and then turning around or tasting it without performing any attacks. These observations showed that individual fish motivation and behaviour are important factors in determining whether European catfish are attracted to bait and eventually hooked.
Keywords: Bait, fishing, predation, river, top predator, video.
