New research suggests coral trout work together with moray eels to catch prey.
The findings are one of the first to show sophisticated collaborative abilities are not just limited to apes and humans, Cell Press reported.
"The trout's collaboration appears to be relatively special, as it uses gestures to coordinate its hunts with partners of different species, such as morays, napoleon wrasse, and octopus," said Alexander Vail of the University of Cambridge.
The predators are of more service to trout than other members of their own species because they flush prey out of reef crevices in a more powerful and efficient way. The relationship can be considered a "social tool" to manipulate the prey out of the crevices in lieu of a prying stick.
Chimpanzees have been observed to work with others of the same species to hunt; different individuals take on different roles for the most efficient and productive hunting trips. The chimpanzees have also been known to be skilled at choosing the best partners for the hunt. These skills have been seen as evidence of advanced cognitive processes.
Researchers wondered if these collaborative abilities could be found in species less closely-related to humans, they found evidence of this in the fish Plectropomus.
To make their findings the researchers brought trout from the Great Barrier Reef back to the lab to see how they interacted with one "good" and one "bad" moray eel decoy. The good eel would come to the coral trout's aid when signaled while the bad one would swim in the opposite direction.
The team found the trout were about as good at determining proficient hunting partners as chimpanzees. The researchers also noticed the trout could determine whether or not the eel would make a good partner relatively quickly.
"Our study shows that these collaborative skills are not confined to apes and raises the possibility that they may be found in a number of other animal species for which they are ecologically relevant," Vail said.
The findings were published Sept. 8 in Current Biology.
