Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
remarkable behaviors happen only occasionally, like reproduction or
feeding strategies; these can best be shown with a video placed adja-
cent to the live animal exhibit. And certain behaviors go totally un-
noticed by us land animals simply because humans don't have a sen-
sory system capable of detecting them. Consider, for example, electric
fishes. Two unrelated families, the mormyrids from Africa and the
gymnotids from South America, navigate, communicate, and find food
and mates in their dark, turbid world wholly through complex elec-
tromagnetic impulses. They “see” their world with electricity, much
in the same way bats and dolphins use sound and hearing to “see”
theirs. Even more alien to us humans, many animals “see” their world
by detecting chemicals with an olfactory sensory system far more acute
than ours.
I found other sensory systems fascinating and wanted to share this
phenomenon with aquarium visitors. I'd designed some electric fish
exhibits at the Freshwater Aquarium at Sea World, so I set out to do
something similar at Steinhart. Aided by a novice's knowledge of elec-
tronics, a couple of stainless steel electrodes, and a stereo amplifier from
the local electronics supplier, I converted the electric pulses of the fish
to stereo sound that we humans could hear.
This added a new dimension to an exhibit of black ghost knifefish
(
Gnathonemus petersi
). As the fish moved about the tank “seeing” their
environment and communicating with their electricity, the converted
sound from these impulses moved through the speakers. Without the
use of graphics, which often go unread, an interesting aspect of this
fish's life now came to life for the visitor.
If a behavior of an animal occurs frequently enough— on command,
so to speak—it's possible to schedule times when visitors can see them
do their thing. One of the world's most remarkable fish is the archerfish
(
To xotes jaculator
), which shoots droplets of water at high velocity to
knock insects out of the air or o¤ overhanging vegetation. Although
this behavior is well known, few people have had the opportunity to
see them do it.
I took on the project of setting up an exhibit of archerfish at Stein-
hart. I'd kept archerfish previously in a conventional exhibit tank and
noticed that sometimes during their regular feeding if a piece of food
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