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Foraging behaviour and brain morphology in recently emerged brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis

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Abstract

Recently emerged brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) foraging in still-water pools along the sides of streams are either active, feeding on insects from the upper portion of the water column away from the stream bank, or sedentary, feeding on crustaceans emerging from the hyporheic zone near the stream bank. We tested whether the frequency of movement displayed by individual brook charr searching for prey in the field was related to the relative volume of the telencephalon, a brain region involved with movement and space use in fishes. Movement of individuals searching for prey was quantified in the field, individuals were captured and volumes of the telencephalon and of the olfactory bulbs, a brain region neighbouring the telencephalon but not implicated in space use, were measured. Individuals with larger telencephalon volumes moved more frequently on average while searching for prey in the field than did individuals with smaller telencephalon volumes. The frequency of movement was unrelated to differences in the volume of the olfactory bulbs, suggesting that the relationship between telencephalon volume and movement was not a consequence of differences in overall brain size. Demonstrating a correlation between foraging behaviour and brain morphology for brook charr exhibiting different foraging tactics suggests that diversification in brain structure and function could be important aspects of the foraging specialization believed to occur during early stages in the evolution and development of resource polymorphisms.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous referees and Drs. N. Bernier, E. Boulding, D. Noakes and J. Fryxell for comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript, S. Burosch for assistance in the field, T. Zufelt for assistance with illustrations, E. Niimi for assistance with the brain histology, R. Frank and M. Cornish for technical support in Hagen Aqualab, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for permission to collect fish for scientific purposes. This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council Canada Discovery grant to RLM and was approved by the University of Guelph Animal Care Committee (Animal Care Utilization Protocol no. 04R049). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Alexander D. M. Wilson

    Present address: Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

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  1. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Robert L. McLaughlin

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Correspondence to Alexander D. M. Wilson.

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Communicated by J. Krause

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Wilson, A.D.M., McLaughlin, R.L. Foraging behaviour and brain morphology in recently emerged brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 1905–1914 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1002-4

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