What is it about?
Radio telemetry is a great tool to understand behaviour of fishes, we used this technique to determine when and where yellowfish migrate to. We were also able to determine some basic behaviour of yellowfish and how they can contribute to the management and setting of environmental flows.
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Why is it important?
We found out that adult yellowfish don't undergo migrations instead are facultative by nature. Telemetry restricted the study of adult fish only as evidence does suggest that younger yellowfish do migrate. Habitat used by yellowfish found to be significantly associated with boulder habitats. Further we were able to determine that yellowfish were diurnal by nature undergoing resting period at night and feediong intensively during the day. Lastly we determined that changes in flow of 60 m3/s-1 within a 24 hour time period negatively effected the behaviour of yellowfish.
Perspectives
The technicalities of doing a behavioural study in Kruger Park especially on fish means one needs to know a lot more about the dangers both inside and outside the water. Lots of interesting encounters can be shared that didn't necessarily contribute to the study but was integral to performing the study. IT was the first telemetry study on Large-Scale Yellowfish and the results were fascinating.
Dr. Matthew Burnett
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The spatial ecology of adult Labeobarbus marequensis and their response to flow and habitat variability in the Crocodile River, Kruger National Park, African Journal of Aquatic Science, November 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.2989/16085914.2018.1517077.
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