Surgical implantation of radio tags in three eel species (<scp><i>Anguilla</i></scp> spp.) in South Africa

Hanzen, Céline; Lucas, Martyn C.; O’Brien, Gordon; Calverley, Peter M.A.; Downs, Colleen T.

doi:10.1111/jfb.14270

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…This latter hypothesis better explains why the climbing success of sicydiines also decreased with size for two elastomer pin substrates while their body width is narrower than large enough for these individuals, which recently arrived from the ocean, especially for sicydiines for which only individuals longer than 100 mm TL have a body width larger than 1.3 cm. In larger rivers on continents, these species can migrate hundreds of kilometres upstream (Hanzen et al, 2020;Harrison, 1993;Lyons, 2005) and thus have time to grow. In continental watersheds, fishways thus need to accommodate larger individuals in upstream reaches and our recommendation need to be adjusted to a larger size range of fishes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climbing for dummies: recommendation for multi‐specific fishways for the conservation of tropical eels and gobies

Lagarde

Courret

Grondin³

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climbing for dummies: recommendation for multi‐specific fishways for the conservation of tropical eels and gobies

Lagarde

Courret

Grondin³

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

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“…(ii) investing in surgeon training (Lopes et al, 2016); and (iii) using antibiotics to prevent post-surgical complications (Isely et al, 2002;Hanzen et al, 2020). In addition, it is important to consider the adequacy of sample size to rates of data loss in tropical regions.…”

Section: Movement Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dazed and confused: Behavioural constraints impose major challenges to fish passage in the neotropics

Lopes

Alves²,

Peressin

2021

Aquatic Conservation

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1. The role of fish translocation upstream of dams, for the conservation of migratory species, is controversial. An important but still unaddressed question is whether migratory patterns are affected, after the translocation events, by a hydropower dam. In existing dams, a useful means to test this might be to compare the behaviour of translocated fish with those in undammed river segments in the same region.2. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of fish translocation in promoting access to spawning areas through a behavioural approach using Prochilodus costatus as a study model in the São Francisco River, south-east Brazil.3. The reservoir acted as a barrier to the dispersal of translocated individuals with only a small fraction of the population able to locate lotic stretches in the tributaries. Individuals translocated to undammed stretches of river upstream of the reservoir exhibited movement behaviour that was markedly different from that of individuals native to this region. Translocated individuals mainly displayed an erratic pattern of movement between upstream and downstream stretches of river with no specific route. In contrast, local individuals made long-distance upstream spawning migrations and downstream return migrations to feeding sites during specific periods of the year. The results indicate that translocating individuals upstream of Três Marias damtends to be ineffective for the conservation of P. costatus in the region. The study showed that the behaviour of translocated individuals, a largely neglected factor for the tropical region, may be an additional barrier to the success of conservation programmes based on fish passage systems. For the population studied, the maintenance of a free-flowing stretch where fish are able to complete their life cycle is a more viable and effective alternative for conservation.

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“…Eels were placed in a 50-L bucket containing aerated fresh river water, monitored, and released back at their capture site less than 1 h after surgery. The tagging method used, and its validation, are described extensively in Hanzen et al (2020).…”

Section: Capture and Taggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was confirmed for individual #4 (based on size and location), which was retagged and remained active until the end of our study. Recapture rate, wound healing and validation of internal tagging for freshwater eels in South African rivers are detailed in Hanzen et al (2020).…”

Section: Habitat Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial ecology of freshwater eels in South Africa: implications for conservation

et al. 2021

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Four freshwater eel species (Anguilla spp.) occur in southern African rivers that are increasingly anthropogenically modified. Information on movements, habitat use and overlap by African eels is needed for their conservation. We carried out a preliminary investigation of the spatial ecology of three eel species in the Thukela River, South Africa, using radio-telemetry. Nineteen yellow-stage eels were surgically implanted with radio-tags, comprising A. mossambica (n = 2), A. bengalensis (n = 9) and A. marmorata (n = 8), and tracked from October 2018 to August 2019. Tagged eels exhibited high individual variability in space use. We recorded very small home ranges in winter for all species. A lack of apparent territoriality at inter-and intra-specific levels was observed. Eel species tended to use similar mesohabitats, especially glides, but habitat preference changed across seasons, and between species, suggesting fine-scale spatial and temporal niche partitioning. Given the breadth of flow typologies used by Thukela eels across the seasons, conservation of these long-lived species indicates that management of river flows needs to be sensitive to their habitat requirements all year round, but in many water-stressed South African rivers, this may be unlikely. Maintaining good habitat connectivity for these migrant species must be prioritised.

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Surgical implantation of radio tags in three eel species (Anguilla spp.) in South Africa

Cited by 7 publications

References 31 publications

Climbing for dummies: recommendation for multi‐specific fishways for the conservation of tropical eels and gobies

Climbing for dummies: recommendation for multi‐specific fishways for the conservation of tropical eels and gobies

Dazed and confused: Behavioural constraints impose major challenges to fish passage in the neotropics

Spatial ecology of freshwater eels in South Africa: implications for conservation

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