Strategies of Predator Attacks on the Schooling Fish, Selar crumenophthaltnus, in Academy Bay, Socorro Island, Islas Revillagigedo, Mexico

Abstract

One of the main reasons that fish form schools is that it serves to <br /><br />reduce the risk of being eaten. Single predators are most successful at capturing <br /><br />individuals not in schools. For every successful anti-predator strategy by a prey <br /><br />species there is usually a concomitant more successful strategy by the predators. <br /><br />I report here on the behavior of three species of predatory fish and two species <br /><br />of predatory birds toward a school of jacks, Selar crumenophthalmus which dem- <br /><br />onstrate that these predators use a variety of methods to obtain fish from a school.