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Wild fish can recognize unique humans with visual cues
- Wild fish have been shown to recognize human divers with visual cues from their dive gear, as demonstrated by experiments conducted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
- In the study, fish were trained to follow a specific diver who provided food rewards, and they could distinguish this diver from another without food based on visual cues.
- When divers wore identical gear, fish were unable to differentiate between them, highlighting the importance of visual cues from diving equipment for recognition.
- The experiments were carried out in the Mediterranean Sea, where researchers observed the ability of wild fish like saddled sea bream and black sea bream to recognize and follow specific divers.
- Lead author Maëlan Tomasek noted that previous evidence on fish recognizing humans is limited, with intriguing studies like one showing a captive archerfish distinguishing human faces.
- The study found that fish followed divers based on color differences in their gear, indicating that visual cues play a significant role in how fish identify individuals.
- The researchers also named some fish with unique features that participated in the experiments, showing that these fish could learn to associate specific divers with food rewards.
- The inability of fish to differentiate between divers in identical gear emphasized the reliance on visual cues, such as patches of color on divers' bodies, for recognition.
- Overall, the study underscores the capability of wild fish to recognize and distinguish individual divers based on visual cues from their dive gear.
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