Just the Zoo of Us6 Nov 2025

311: Cleaner Wrasse

Ellen comes clean about the bluestreak cleaner wrasse. We discuss trust, cheating, fish patriarchy, manipulation, deception, game theory, the prisoner's dilemma, marketing, the mirror test, the horrors of self-awareness, and so much more. Christian drinks a Capri-Sun.

Works Cited:

“Testing the Low-density Hypothesis for Reversed Sex Change in Polygynous Fish: Experiments in Labroides dimidiatus” - Tetsuo Kuwamura et al., Scientific Reports, March 2014
“Punishment and partner switching cause cooperative behavior in a cleaning mutualism” - Redouan Bshary & Alexandra Grutter, Biology Letters, July 2005
“Power and temptation cause shifts between exploitation and cooperation in a cleaner wrasse mutualism” - Simon Gingins et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., June 2013
“Male cleaner wrasses adjust punishment of female partners according to the stakes” by Nichola J Raihani et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., June 2011
“Cleaner fish are sensitive to what their partners can and cannot see” - Katherine McAuliffe et al., Communications Biology, Sep 2021
“Biting cleaner fish use altruism to deceive image-scoring client reef fish” by Redouan Bshary et al., Proc. Biol. Sci., Feb 2002
“If a fish can pass the mark test, what are the implications for consciousness and selfawareness testing in animals?” - Masanori Kohda et al., PLOS Biol, Feb 2019
“Further evidence for the capacity of mirror self-recognition in cleaner fish and the significance of ecologically relevant marks” - Masanori Kohda et al., PLOS Biol., Feb 2022
“Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans” - Masanori Kohda et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Feb 2023
“Cleaner fish with mirror self-recognition capacity precisely realize their body size based on their mental image” - Taiga Kobayashi et al., Scientific Reports, Sep 2024
“The false cleanerfish relies on aggressive mimicry to bite fish fins when benthic foods are scarce in their local habitat” - Misaki Fujisawa et al., Scientific Reports, May 2020

Links:

For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
Follow Just the Zoo of Us on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
Follow Ellen on BlueSky!

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(361)

342: Mongoose

Ellen and Christian return from their travels to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of the mongooses. We discuss the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, historical plurals, neurotoxin Darth Vader...

9 Jul 1h 1min

Terrestrials: The Trio w/ Lulu Miller!

Ellen & special guest, science journalist and host of Radiolab and Terrestrials Lulu Miller, discuss the lifelong impact of science communication, review bald eagles, and share a very special podcast ...

26 Jun 49min

341: Elephant Mosquito w/ Cassandra Fieldson!

Join Ellen & special guest science communicator, infectious disease researcher, and the Khaleesi of Mosquitos for a review of some of the animal kingdom’s most controversial creatures. We discuss whet...

18 Jun 57min

340: Fiddler Crab

We add another string to our bow by learning about the fiddler crab. We discuss the arc of history bending towards crab, the MogBot 2000, bad dating advice, non-orientable wormholes, and so much more....

12 Jun 52min

339: Binturong w/ Rick Schwartz!

Join Ellen & special guest science communicator and ambassador for wildlife Rick Schwartz for a review of the wise old wizards of Asian forests: binturongs. We discuss career paths for yappers, monkey...

4 Jun 1h 5min

338: Seriema

Ellen gets her claws out for seriemas. We discuss terror birds, reverse mullets, sickle claws, weird scenes from Jurassic Park, golf ball physics, and so much more. Works Cited: “Observation of Claw...

28 Mai 48min

337: Tree Kangaroos w/ Lisa Dabek!

Join Ellen & special guest, senior conservation scientist at Woodland Park Zoo and founder of the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program Lisa Dabek, as we celebrate World Tree Kangaroo Day by putting thes...

21 Mai 59min

336: Crawfish w/ Jack Koch!

Join Ellen & special guest, technobiologist and professor Jack Koch, for a review of the iconic crustacean known and loved by many names: the crawfish. We discuss sea hare ink, a genetically modified ...

15 Mai 46min