Professor John Montgomery

Professor

Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour

Phone: +64 9 3737599 ext 87208
Thomas Building, Rm 140
Email: j.montgomery@auckland.ac.nz

Research Interests

Fish have a range of interesting sensory systems in addition to vision. These including the mechanosensory hearing and lateral line systems, and in some fishes, a system to detect weak electric fields. My research has focused on sharks and rays which are predominantly nocturnal, Antarctic fish which feed in winter darkness, and on New Zealand native freshwater fish which are also active at night.

In addition to understanding the natural history and behaviour of these fish in relation to their non-visual capabilities, I am directly involved in studies on the neurophysiology of their sensory systems and the central processing of sensory information. With Sheryl Coombs of Chicago, we are exploring how fish localize low frequency hydrodynamic signals. In a collaborative study with David Bodznick at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory we have been examining the hindbrain processing of electrosensory information, which allows rays to distinguish between their own electric fields and the fields of their prey. We have demonstrated a sophisticated adaptive filter which learns to cancel any input associated with the animal's own movement.

Many interesting and important fish behaviours, such as migration, habitat selection and feeding, involve sensory biology. We are putting our knowledge of sensory biology to use by contributing to a range of applied problems in freshwater and marine fish biology and fisheries. Of recent note is our work on the use of acoustic clues for pre-settlement reef fish to find their way back to the reef.