ArticleAnimal cognition2026
Comparative spatial cognition in wild Tanganyikan cichlids: navigation performance varies with home range and shelter availability.
Article in Animal cognition, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Spatial cognition varies widely even among closely related species, and identifying the ecological drivers of this variation remains challenging because species typically differ in multiple aspects of their ecology simultaneously. Here we performed wild experiments to compare spatial navigation in seven related species of shell-dwelling cichlids from Lake Tanganyika that share fundamental aspects of their ecology but vary in home range size and shelter availability. We displaced territorial males at successively greater distances (30 cm to 15 m) from shelters, using video tracking and automated 3D terrain reconstruction to measure return paths and homing success. We complemented this with onshore experiments examining landmark use and memory for shell locations. Of the seven species tested, three (Lamprologus ornatipinnis, L. ocellatus, Neolamprologus meeli) reliably returned to their home shells while four species (N. multifasciatus, N. brevis, N. pulcher, Telmatochromis temporalis) sought shelter in the nearest refuge. Among the navigating species, homing success declined with displacement distance, and long-distance performance (at 15 m) differed: N. meeli (largest range, fewest shelters) succeeded in 80% of trials, while L. ocellatus and L. ornatipinnis (smaller ranges, marginally more shelters) succeeded in only ~ 10% of trials. Arena experiments revealed that the two better-performing species in the field preferentially searched in areas previously associated with their home shell, with N. meeli showing additional use of experimental landmarks. Our findings provide a detailed comparative foundation for future work, highlighting how ecological context shapes spatial cognition in natural populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.