Modulation of risk-taking behaviour in golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) using robotic fish

While robotic simulacra of a variety of species have been developed in recent years, their potential to modulate animal behaviour is largely unexplored. Here, we considered golden shiner behaviour in a risk-taking protocol wherein subjects swam in the presence of a perceived threat and a robotic fish. We found that the behaviour of the robot modulated risk-taking of golden shiners, with bolder and shyer fish response elicited by bolder and shyer behaviour of the robot, respectively. Moreover, fish response was observed to be not correlated with their individual boldness, measured in a separate test. The results of this work may inform the design of engineering methods to regulate fish behaviour for the purposes of animal control, conservation, and production using readily-deployable autonomous robots. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.