Roxy Holmes

🚨NEW paper alert🚨

Latest instalment in the #trumpetfish story: colour polymorphic individuals choose to ‘shadow’ non-predatory fishes of similar colour, gaining them a hunting advantage

Led by the wonderful @sammatchette.bsky.social
Out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

17.12.2025 17:50 — 👍 15    🔁 6    💬 2    📌 0

Responses of lionfish (Pterois spp.) to ambient coral reef soundscapes. Roxanne Holmes. University of Cambridge

Invasive lionfish respond to ambient soundscapes, but only at night- perhaps because vision is less reliable? 🐟🪸 #ASABWinter2025

16.12.2025 14:41 — 👍 14    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0

Tactical deception in cephalopods: a new framework for understanding cognition Many animals rely on deception, including signalling misinformation, to gain advantages over others. While many deceptive strategies rely on deterministic patterns or conditioning, some taxa can flexi...

🚨 New paper alert! 👀 In our new opinion piece in TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social, we propose #cephalopods as model systems to investigate the link between tactical #deception and #cognition in animals 🐙🦑🪄✨🧠
Read the paper here:
🔗 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

27.05.2025 10:42 — 👍 31    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 0

Moreover, we find that when controlling for underlying abundance, #lionfish are encountered deeper, form larger maximum #group sizes and are caught in larger maximum catch sizes in areas with higher #hunting pressure. @sammatchette.bsky.social @marinebehavecol.bsky.social

25.05.2025 16:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Citizen science reveals relationships between human hunting pressure and the abundance and behaviour of invasive lionfish (Pterois spp.) - Biological Invasions Predation can shape the distribution and abundance of animals in an environment, with a major source of predation in some systems now coming from humans. However, measuring the influence of human acti...

🚨Our new paper is out now in Biological Invasions. Using a #citizen_science approach, we find correlations between #invasive #lionfish abundance, the length of time invaded, and human #hunting pressure in the western #Atlantic and #Caribbean Sea. doi.org/10.1007/s105...

25.05.2025 16:47 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

An interesting day spent at the 1st European #Lionfish Conference in Crete and a great visit to the aquarium and HCMR.Thanks @kotrschal.bsky.social for organising.

16.05.2025 15:42 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Motion After‐Effects Induced by Dynamic Illumination in Crab Vision While in humans, background motion can disrupt the detection of visual cues even after the moving background component has ceased, it remains unknown whether natural forms of background motion might ...

🚨Our new paper is out NOW in @ecol-evol.bsky.social 👀 Here we show that prior exposure to dynamic illumination can have a persisting effect on the visual perception of 🦀, reducing their ability to detect predators even after the dynamic illumination has ended.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

12.05.2025 09:58 — 👍 9    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0

Thanks to my supervisor Dr James Herbert-Read, and to @nadia-hamilton.bsky.social and @14katie41.bsky.social and everyone in @marinebehavecol.bsky.social for help with this study.

14.05.2025 07:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Lionfish (Pterois volitans) Show Social Attraction to Conspecifics When Selecting Shelters Group formation in animals can arise from two primary mechanisms: individuals aggregating over resources, or individuals socially benefiting from interacting with conspecifics. Distinguishing between...

🚨 Our new paper is out now in Ethology. Here we show that #lionfish show social attraction to conspecifics when selecting shelters. doi.org/10.1111/eth....

13.05.2025 19:16 — 👍 8    🔁 5    💬 2    📌 0

Overall, we find no evidence that lionfish utilise ambient soundscapes of different habitat types for directional orientation during the day.

04.12.2024 17:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Moreover, lionfish activity was not influenced by the habitat playback type, nor did their preference interact with body size.

04.12.2024 17:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

When exposed to sandy or reef habitat playbacks versus a silent control, lionfish displayed no preference to associate with either soundscape, nor did they choose to associate more with either habitat soundscape when broadcast simultaneously.

04.12.2024 17:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

🚨Excited that the first chapter from my PhD is now out in Marine Biology. Here we show that #lionfish do not show any directional preferences for ambient #soundscapes during diurnal hours.
🔗link.springer.com/article/10.100…
🧵A thread to find out more:

04.12.2024 17:31 — 👍 14    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0

Merry fishmas from the MBE group! 🐟

22.11.2024 19:39 — 👍 16    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 0