Now listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.
Now this can be seen in a certain type of small fish called the minnow.
Minnows are hunted by a larger fish called a lake trout. Some minnows have learned to react to the smell of lake trout, mainly by gathering close together and not moving around much, because this makes it harder for lake trout to find and eat the minnows. So scientists explored the phenomenon we've been talking about by conducting an experiment. They exposed a group of minnows to the odors of two different kinds of fish that the minnows had never seen before. 1 kind was another species of trout called a Brooke trout, which even though a different species was still similar in some ways to lake trout.
The other kind of fish was not a trout at all. It was a totally different kind of fish. So when the meadows smelled the Brooke trout, they knew it smelled similar to the lake trout. So they behaved the same way as when they smelled the lake trout. That is they gathered close together and didn't move much even though they never encountered the Brooke trout before. But when they smell the other type of fish, the one that wasn't a trout, they behaved normally, they did not respond as if they sensed they were in danger.
Explain how the example of minnows and trout illustrates the concept of generalization to avoid predators.
The reading talks about Generalization to Avoid Predators which is a phenomenon that animals are able to identify which other animals might be dangerous predators by their similarity to predators they are familiar with. In the lecture，the professor uses an experiment of minnows and trout as an example. Minnows are haunted by lake trout, and when they smell a lake trout, they instinctively get close together to be safe. Given this fact, scientists conducted an experiment to explore. A group of minnows were exposed to the odors of two different species of larger fish.A brook trout, which is very similar to the lake trout and a completely new species.The thing is when minnows smelled the first species, they behaved as they would with a lake trout.That is they got close together and didn't move even though they had never encountered a brook trout before. But when they were exposed to the other species, they just behaved normally being unaware of the danger.
