Date: 17.01.2018

European catfish drives the freshwater ecosystems

European catfish (Silurus glanis) is an apex predator of the European freshwater ecosystems. Even it is lately on the increase mainly due to human activity, studies dealing with diet behaviour of this species are scarce.

Our new study shows, that the main key of the catfish, as well as other large-bodied apex predators, how to be successful is an enormous generalism. It means that large predators are not specialized on given prey but utilize wide spectrum of food sources to meet their needs. The second typical characteristic is high adaptability to new prey sources. Both features and also low level of cannibalism provide that catfish populations are abundant and drive the freshwater ecosystems.

More information about behaviour and impact of catfish on the ecosystem can be found in Vejřík L., Vejříková I., Blabolil P., Eloranta A.P., Kočvara L., Peterka J., Sajdlová Z., Son Hoang The Chung, Šmejkal M., Kiljunen M., Čech M. (2017) European catfish (Silurus glanis) as a freshwater apex predator drives ecosystem via its diet adaptability. Scientific reports DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-16169-9.

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