What is it about?
If two closely related species share the same environment, social structure, and foraging style, it seems reasonable to expect them to make the same decisions. And indeed, they often do when the choices are simple. However, our study revealed that two species of bower-building cichlids from Lake Tanganyika adopt strikingly different strategies when faced with complex decisions: one makes rapid choices by focusing on a single feature of the available options, whereas the other invests more time to make better-informed decisions.
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Photo by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash
Why is it important?
By integrating fundamental concepts from human psychology and animal cognition, this extensive field study of wild animals sets a precedent for interdisciplinary research. It also demonstrates that sophisticated and comprehensive cognitive experiments can be successfully conducted with wild fish.
Perspectives
There is something both magical and humbling about asking questions to fish in their natural environment while SCUBA diving, especially when their answers turn out to be so unexpected. I hope this article will make people see fish in a new light. It certainly made me reflect on my own decision-making: am I usually a fish that chooses fast, or one that chooses carefully?
Maëlan Tomasek
Monash University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Decision rules diverge between sympatric Featherfin cichlids despite shared preferences, ecology, and evolutionary history, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2620602123.
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