Evolution of schooling and exploration strategies in the Mexican tetra fish

The Mexican tetra fish is found in rivers as well as in subterranean caves. Each cave population is the result of the colonization of a cave by a surface population, followed by about 200,000 years of isolated adaptation to life in a dark, food-scarce environment. Thus, the Mexican tetra provides a fascinating window into the evolution of animal displacement patterns in response to changes in sensory inputs and food availability. In this talk I will present results on the collective dynamics of groups of fish from surface and cave populations and discuss the implications of the observed inter-population differences on the way each population explores its environment.