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Scientists discover 'climbing' behavior of rare bumblebee catfish
A group of bumblebee catfish performed a gravity-defying display, swimming up a mini waterfall in the Aquidauana River in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, footage captured at the end of last year shows. (Credit: Manoela Maria Ferreira Marinho/Journal of Fish Biology via Storyful)
Environmental Military Police in Brazil witnessed a new skill in bumblebee catfish, a rare species native to South America and Asia, according to Fishlore.
Migrating to spawn
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Footage captured by the Environmental Military Police shows bumblebee catfish swimming up a small waterfall in the Aquidauana River in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul on Nov. 16, 2024.
A team of Brazilian scientists saw the footage and went to that exact spot to study the phenomena and published a scientific article based on this behavior.
FILE - Freeze frame from video showing bumblebee catfish climbing up a small waterfall in Brazil. (Credit: Manoela Maria Ferreira Marinho/Journal of Fish Biology via Storyful)
The footage shows groups of bumblebee catfish, otherwise known as Rhyacoglanis paranensis, "clustered and slowly moving upstream," the study said.
Some of the videos also captured large numbers of the species piled onto walls, which the study described as an aggregation "so massive that specimens were seen above each other, climbing the large cluster of fish."
Researchers concluded the bumblebee catfish were likely migrating upriver to spawn, noting that this was the first time such a migratory pattern was documented.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from the Fishlore website. Storyful also contributed.