A note from Dr. Mark Hixon (pasted below) updating his lab’s lionfish research. In addition to the papers he highlights, there are are also some interesting findings regarding lionfish parasite release in the invaded range and how lionfish may disrupt fish cleaning stations.
“Now that my lab’s lionfish research is winding-down, I’ve finally updated our lionfish invasion web […]
Here is a recent paper on lionfish prey compiled at a regional scale. The Abstract is pretty straight forward, so I will just paste that below. I think the key sentence is the last. Since lionfish are such generalist predators, their trophic role will vary substantially among regions, islands, ecosystems and individual habitats. My opinion remains the dire predictions […]
Kids on Andros Island seem to think so. Researchers from North Carolina State University authored this study, comparing kids’ preferences for animals in The Bahamas and North Carolina. The base question posed was: ““What are your five favorite kinds of wild animals that live in in The Bahamas?”. The most common answer for kids on Andros was…..dogs. Here is […]
A recent issue of the journal, International Reptile Conservation Federation (IRCF), contains two short articles featuring recent observations of two new species introductions to Abaco. Below, I relay these findings and offer a few thoughts on what these recent observations suggest for the future of Abaco’s fauna. […]
Here is a popular press piece (link here) on the first documented sound production in lionfish. The original paper well qualifies that these data are just preliminary, but very interesting what role this sound production may play. Here is a paragraph from the article with some speculation:
Sound is a critical component of fish social behaviour and sound production […]
Came across this short paper about a termite introduction on Abaco. Here is another paper by the same author that describes how the initial introduction of this species in Florida was one of the first exotic introductions for any termite species. And if you are a real termite geek, here is the taxonomic guide for the group […]
Corn snakes (Pantherophis guttata) are non-venomous snakes native to the Southeastern United States. A few years ago I documented an introduced population of corn snakes established right outside of Cherokee on Abaco (LINK). There have been a few sightings of corn snakes from that area since. Usually, reports are of dead snakes on the Cherokee road (where everyone goes crabbing). Until […]
Last year I reported on hearing a chorus of narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne carolinensis) here on Abaco (link to original post). However without a specimen I couldn’t confirm its presence here. Almost exactly a year later a high school student, Donte Richard, remembered that post and called my attention to an adult in his backyard.
This new observation is about 850 […]
Andrea Anton’s paper on prey naiveté to lionfish predation threat is finally out. Here is the paper summary…
Native prey can be particularly vulnerable to consumption by exotic predators. Prey naiveté, the failure to recognize a novel predator due to lack of recent co-evolutionary history, likely facilitates the disproportionate impact that some exotic predators exert on prey populations. Lionfish Pterois volitans, […]
A guest post from Julia Stevens, who we are collaborating with on a new lionfish project….
Lionfish have a close relationship with the bacteria living on their skin. Some of these bacteria, seemingly acquired from the environment, are part of a core microbiome that contains similar taxa in both the invaded and native ranges of the lionfish. Overall, the […]
