Common fish species has 'human' abilit...(mans and animals. Lead author Dr Jer...)

Lead author Dr Jeremy Kendal from Durham University's Anthropology Department, and a Research Council UK Fellow, said: "Small fish may have small brains but they still have some surprising cognitive abilities.

"'Hill-climbing' strategies are widely seen in human society whereby advances in technology are down to people choosing the best technique through social learning and improving on it, resulting in cumulative culture.

"But our results suggest brain size isn't everything when it comes to the capacity for social learning."

Around 270 fish were caught using dip nets from Melton Brook in Leicester, and housed in aquariums in a laboratory. The fish were split into three experimental groups and one control group. The fish in the experimental groups were given two different learning experiences and two preference tests in a tank with a feeder at each end.

First, they were free to explore the feeder at each end during a number of training trials, where one feeder supplied more worms than the other, called the rich feeder. They were then tested to see which feeder they preferred. In the second training trial, those fish that had learned a preference for the rich feeder observed other fish feeding but this time the rich and poor feeders were swapped round with the rich feeder either giving even more worms than the one the fish previously got their food from or giving roughly the same or less. In the second test, the fish were again free to swim around and choose their feeder.

Around 75 per cent of fish were 'clever' enough to know from watching the other fish that the rich feeder, previously experienced first hand themselves as the poor feeder, gave them the better pay off. In comparison, significantly fewer fish preferred the feeder that appeared to be rich from watching others if they themselves had experience that the alternative feeder would give roughly the same or more food.

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