Significance of Early Emergence, Environmental Rearing Capacity, and Behavioral Ecology of Juvenile Coho Salmon in Stream Channels
- 1 January 1965
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
- Vol. 22 (1), 173-190
- https://doi.org/10.1139/f65-015
Abstract
Coho behavior was examined in two glass-walled stream channels containing riffle-pool series. The apparatus permitted volitional residence. Experimental groups of coho in each channel were permitted to emerge from a simulated redd environment and subsequently studied for 5 months.Aggressive behavior in these coho fry was initiated within 1 week of emergence from the gravel. Within 10 days of emergence, coho occupied and defended feeding territories well-distributed in riffles. Initial aggression was nipping and chasing but within 2 weeks of emergence, aggression also involved threat.Pools appear to constitute principal security features of coho environment. A behavioral pattern termed "fright huddle" was observed and described. Individual fish developed habitual living patterns in the channels, and smaller fish tended to occupy downstream areas.Earliest-emerging coho enjoyed ecological advantages over later-emerging fish. The former were larger at a given time and had a greater tendency to remain in stream channels, suggesting that they have "settler's rights" to available environment and/or better feeding opportunity. The results are discussed with reference to environmental rearing capacity and volitional residence.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Observations on Behavior of Juvenile Brown Trout in a Stream Aquarium During Winter and SpringJournal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1963
- Aggressive Behavior in Juvenile Coho Salmon as a Cause of EmigrationJournal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1962
- AN ANALYSIS OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, GROWTH, AND COMPETITION FOR FOOD AND SPACE IN MEDAKA (ORYZIAS LATIPES (PISCES, CYPRINODONTIDAE))Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1962
- Social Behavior and Interspecific Competition in Two Trout SpeciesPhysiological Zoology, 1956
- Some Relations between Territory, Social Hierarchy, and Leadership in the Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)Physiological Zoology, 1947