St. Petersburg- Ethograms and Dichotomous Keys

 

 Our time in St. Petersburg was full of captivating hands-on experience. We were able to spend a day focused on animal behavior and learning the best practices for recording such qualitative data. I was introduced to ethograms and how to display the findings collected from an observation period. After observing several organisms at the Florida Aquarium, I acquired a greater appreciation for collecting data on animal behavior. While our observation periods only spanned over the course of a few minutes, one challenge did arise. This involved the organism relocating and moving out of sight. An inadequate viewpoint prevents further data collection, which then results in insufficient observations. Fortunately for the FIO students, the wetlands dome and man-made habitats kept all the organisms contained to one area. Obtaining a greater understanding of behavior can be helpful for animals in the wild and in human care. Under human care, observing animals regularly ensures that healthy interactions with both the environment and other animals are occurring. Observing animals in their natural habitat allows researchers to better understand many aspects of a species. This includes their social habits,their methods of feeding and protecting themselves, and how we can protect them from becoming endangered. I spent a large portion of my time watching a pygmy seahorse, H. bargibanti, and a clownfish, A. ocellaris. The H. bargibanti individual spent a majority of its time attached to an artificial coral structure to feed while the A. ocellaris individual spent a majority of its time actively swimming or hiding within an anemone.

I was also fortunate enough to work with a real dichotomous key for the first time. I always enjoyed learning about them and using small examples in previous courses so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to actually use one. I worked with my classmates to identify a small octopus collected on the Weatherbird the day prior. The dichotomous key was extremely helpful as it brought us to the species name after a brief series of questions. I was also introduced to a vast amount of cephalopod vocabulary which was incredibly interesting.

Macrotritopus defilippi collected from the Weatherbird via dredge.

Amphiprion ocellaris hiding in an anemone during an ethogram observation.

Hippocampus bargibanti observed for an Ethogram at the Florida Aquarium.

  

 Having the chance to utilize the dichotomous key and create ethograms was wildly interesting.  While I enjoy learning how researchers use these methods to evaluate and examine species, manipulating them myself was rewarding. I look forward to continuing our fieldwork this week in Peniscola and can’t wait to get out in the field again!

Best Fishes, 

              Syd Brown