strawby-fields

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the wipperrrrr

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To The Person Who Was Sitting Near Me On The Train - Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is out Nov 7th and is available to pre-order here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

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A close up of the Blanket Octopus during a blackwater dive with The Three P diving club , Romblon Island, Philippines. Credit: Joseph Elayani

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Sculptured Slipper Lobster (Parribacus antarcticus), family Scyllaridae, off the coast of Malaysia

photographs by Diving Tips and Stories

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CAN FISH RECOGNIZE INDIVIDUAL HUMANS IN THE WILD?

The ability to recognize individual humans is often associated with mammals and birds, yet research suggests that some fish are also capable of this cognitive feat. While diving in the Mediterranean Sea, a team of scientists observed something intriguing: every field season, they were followed by groups of local fish known as pargo or dorado, stealing food intended to reward other fish in their experiments.

In controlled experiments, wild saddled sea bream (Oblada melanura) and black sea bream (Spondyliosoma cantharus), were trained to follow a human diver to obtain a food reward. Remarkably, they can differentiate between dozens of individuals with high success rates, even when superficial features such as colour or brightness are altered. This suggests that their recognition is based on specific patterns rather than simple visual cues. Similar capabilities have been observed in cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus), which adjust their behaviour depending on whether they recognize a familiar diver, implying that this skill might have adaptive benefits in natural environments.

-Maëlan Tomasek (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior), one of the study's authors, next to a wild fish. The researchers found that wild fish start to follow humans for food and are able to identify individual divers by their clothing.

If fish in the wild can recognize individual humans, the implications extend beyond academic curiosity. Species frequently interacting with humans—such as those in ecotourism settings or research projects—may learn to associate specific individuals with positive or negative experiences. This has been observed in sharks, where some individuals appear to recognize divers who regularly feed or tag them, approaching more readily or avoiding interactions depending on past encounters. Understanding these cognitive abilities could inform conservation strategies by highlighting the impact of repeated human interactions on fish behaviour.

Despite these insights, much remains unknown about how fish process facial recognition and whether this ability is widespread across different taxa. Future research will need to examine whether this recognition occurs naturally in the wild without training and how it influences social interactions within fish populations. As we continue to challenge outdated assumptions about fish intelligence, it becomes increasingly clear that their cognitive world is far more complex than previously thought.

GIF: Trained fishes following diver

Reference (Open Access): Maëlan et al., 2025. Fish use visual cues to recognize individual divers. Biol. Lett.

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Blue Ant (Diamma bicolor), Bttm & mid - females, Top - male, family Thynnidae, Australia

Females are wingless.

photographs: Me and Moxxie, fir0002, Russell Best

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playing TOYS.

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if you want to see more of my work uncensored, check out my patreon and itch.io! if you want to leave me a tip so i can keep creating, check out my ko-fi! if you shared this post, thank you :)

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In the ancient glade

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I hope you like it

I put my heart inside it

No matter what we do

We all end up on someone else's plate

og pic

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ban..... bananathaniel..... BAN.,,

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Matching tattoos for the last day of Valentines month :-P They're Pansies <3 (The Tattoos and Them)

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hey man i think your twink is disturbed. On a very deep fundamental and psychological level

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🎶 I will fall in love with you, over and over again 🎶 My submission for the Thespius Fashionista Zine! Theoretically based on greek mythology but realistically I just wanted to draw flowy fabrics and the rest proceeded from there.

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WHO GOT CAUGHT!?