What’s the SCIoI Fish Lab doing in Mexico?

Remember the Mexican wave? A few months ago, our Fish Lab published a very exciting paper about sulphur mollies and how they collectively perform a very interesting wave to dissuade and distract predators. This behavior is so unique that dozens of news outlets around the world picked up the news and published articles about it (see them in our Press Review). Now, the Fish Lab went back to Mexico to see if collectives of fish can distinguish different predator bird species and if so, to understand how they do it.
While on their trip, our researchers sent us pictures to give a glimpse of their typical day on the field, and it looks really exciting. Scroll all the way down for captions and credits.

  1. Jens Krause during camera calibration. ©️Fritz Francisco
  2. A recording station along the river. ©️Fritz Francisco
  3. Luis Gomez Nava sharpening tools on the first night. ©️ Juliane Lukas
  4. Fritz Francisco doing calibration after a recording session. ©️ Juliane Lukas
  5. Alessandra Escurra catching some sun while observing fish waves. ©️ Juliane Lukas
  6. Calibration. ©️ Fritz Francisco
  7. The team at Villahermosa University. Juliane Lukas, Alessandra Escurra, Fritz Francisco, Luis Gomez, Jens Krause and David Bierbach.
  8. The after work joy of Alessandra Escurra and David Bierbach ©️ Luis Gomez
  9. Group photo in Teapa, Mexico. ©️ Luis Gomez
  10. Luis Gomez and David Bierbach are ready to rumble! ©️ Fritz Francisco
  11. Working in the river. ©️ Alessandra Escurra
  12. 12, 13, 14. Fritz Francisco and David Biebach preparing a fieldsite. ©️ Juliane Lukas

Research

An overview of our scientific work

See our Research Projects