Wren Williams | Professional Voice Actor for Narration

Script:
Fish are the most abundant vertebrate taxonomic group with over 30,000 species colonizing virtually every water body on the earth. The diversity of fish encompasses species from the most primordial to the most complex, highly derived, from the jawless hagfish myxinidae to the live-bearing seahorse hippocampus. In the last decade it has become increasingly clear that the cognitive capacities of fish can be as diverse as their morphology. In fact, cognition has in many ways shaped fish's ability to adapt to the vast range of niches and environments that they inhabit. Fish use tools, develop cultural traditions, take turns, cheat, punish, cooperate in hunting both within and between species, communicate and learn by watching their companions, among many other skills. Paradoxically, as a group, fish have historically been far less represented in research on cognition, yet the very diversity and specializations that have made them difficult to study makes them in turn a rich resource for understanding the evolutionary ecology of animal cognition.