Pattens of Imprinting and Homing in Coho Salmon

大马哈鱼回到它们发源的河流是一个 动物行为的奥秘 已知的是 小鲑鱼学会了家乡河流的气味， 当它们成年后回来时会闻到气味 但殊不知 无论它们是追踪一系列气味还是仅仅寻找气味 它们在向海迁移之前所经历的。 也不 是否只有在特定的发育阶段才能学习气味 或在其淡水居住期间的任何时间。 为了帮助解决这些问题，奎因博士和他的同事们 饲养幼银鲑，并将它们暴露在 华盛顿大学的孵化场在特定时间和 1988年的发展阶段。 他们是从另一个 孵化场，预计将返回作为成年人在1989年秋季， 1990. 根据鲑鱼来自不同的 当实验小组返回时，奎因博士希望确定 在那里它们学会了小时候周围环境的气味 以及它们如何利用这些气味在多年后返回。 归巢是鲑鱼生活史的一个重要特征。 关于归巢意志背后的行为模式的知识 加强保护和恢复土著人民的能力 这些珍贵的鱼类。

The homing of salmon to the rivers where they originated is one of the great mysteries of animal behavior. It is known that young salmon learn the odors of their home river and seek these odors when they return as adults. However, it is not known whether they retrace a sequence of odors or merely seek the odor that they experienced prior to seaward migration. It is also not known whether they can learn odors only at specific developmental stages or at any time during their period of freshwaterresidence. To help resolve these questions, Dr. Quinn and his colleagues reared juvenile coho salmon and exposed them to the odors of the University of Washington's hatchery at specific times and developmental stages in 1988. They were released from another hatchery and are expected to return as adults in fall 1989 and 1990. Depending on where the salmon from the different experimental groups return, Dr. Quinn hopes to determine the ways in which they learned the odors of their environment as young fish and how they use these odors to return years later. Homing is an essential feature of the life history of salmon. Knowledge of the patterns of behavior underlying homing will enhance the ability to protect and rehabilitate populations of these extremely valuable fishes.