O comportamento e a antecipação do risco em peixes territoriais sob influência do mergulhador

Abstract

Animals shape their cost-benefit decisions, associated with food and safety, according to the perception of predation risk. In the marine environment, even non-consumptive human-related activities, such as ecotourism, can increase the animal’s wariness, often inducing them to flee or seek shelter. Yet, the costs of this disturbance on siteattached animals, remain underestimated. It includes how they trade-off the territory defense and food intake while dealing with our ongoing presence in the reef systems. Understanding these effects is crucial to elucidating whether diving tourism can impair fish body condition and/or interspecific interactions. Here, I investigated if the presence of SCUBA divers and snorkelers, in distinct reef systems, can disrupt the behaviour of four damselfish species: Stegastes fuscus, S. sanctipauli, S. apicalis and Pomacentrus wardi. Experimental approaches (diver presence, predator decoy presence and control) were applied in 125 territories of damselfishes using underwater remote vídeo cameras. All recorded videos were analysed in the Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS) by considering the frequency of following behaviours: refuge, foraging, chase and the patrolling time. Overall, behavioural responses indicate that diver presence reduced the frequency of territorial defence and patrolling time, pushing them to take refuge rather than feed. Additionally, at a remote reef, S. sanctipauli have shown a wide generalization of predator recognition, do not effectively distinguish the threat-stimuli between predator model and diver presence. The transient human presence in reefs intimidate and diminish damselfishes’ food exploration. Withal these changes, the trophic relationships between territorial fish and benthic community may become unstable. It would affect the resilience of coral reef community in pristine and recreational marine areas. Long-term monitoring of the territorial fish behaviour will broaden the concept of landscape of fear, as well as work as an indicator of human disturbance and thus, be valuable for conservation strategies in coral reefs.