Europe 1 with AFP 09:32, January 12, 2022
A team of Israeli researchers concluded Tuesday that goldfish may be well able to drive a vehicle, in a study examining the species' ability to adapt to guide itself in a terrestrial environment.
The researchers had reproduced a device allowing a large fish to move.
We warn you first: this is not a premature April Fool's joke!
Goldfish are well capable of driving a vehicle, concluded a team of Israeli researchers in a study examining the ability of this species to adapt to guide itself in a terrestrial environment.
In a study published in the February edition of the peer-reviewed Behavioral Brain Research journal, researchers at Ben-Gurion University, located in the southern Negev Desert in Israel, created a device that allows a large goldfish swimming in an aquarium, itself placed on a robotic rolling platform, to move.
A video of the experience on the internet
The researchers had attached cameras tracking the movement of the fish and linked to a computer guiding the vehicle. When the goldfish went to the front part of the aquarium, the vehicle moved forward and when the fish remained in the rear part, the vehicle remained stationary, say the researchers who uploaded a video of this singular "vehicle ordered by a fish".
To refine their research, Israeli scientists placed a target outside the vehicle.
When the goldfish managed to reach the target, it received 0.002 grams of food granule in its aquarium as a reward, says the study funded by public funds and which followed local protocol in terms of respect for animals.
After a few days, the fish managed to hit the target without going astray, "no matter where they started from" and "avoiding dead ends," the study concludes that goldfish have the "ability to do." to transfer his spatial representation and his navigation capacities in a terrestrial environment completely different "from his own.