ABOVE: A pair of Labroides dimidiatus cleaner fish eats dead skin cells and minuscule parasites off of a puffer fish.
© ISTOCK.COM, HANSGERTBROEDER
Online videos of children doing things they are not supposed to when a parent looks away often rack up views and shares. But do other animals also behave themselves better when they know someone’s watching? Some research in primates has addressed this question; for example, chimpanzees have been found to steal food from potential competitors when their actions are concealed from the competitor’s view.
Now, in a study published on September 30 in Communications Biology, researchers have found that fish known as cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) also behave differently when watched. Females were more likely to cheat, eating forbidden foods for which their male partners would normally punish them, when they knew the males could not see them. These insights support the notion of complex cognition occurring ...
