Avoidance or escape? Discriminating between two hypotheses for the function of schooling in threespine sticklebacks

► Animals might form groups to avoid predators or to escape from them. ► Threespine sticklebacks previously exposed to predator cues schooled more. ► Immediate exposure to simulated predation risk did not influence schooling behaviour. ► These results imply that the function of schooling in sticklebacks is to avoid predators.