In May 2023, Matteo Santon Filmed the cuttlefish in the reefs in shallow water around Indonesia. Marine visual environment at the University of Bristol in England, he planned to document the approach of predators to hunting from the point of view of the prey – essentially, to see what it is to be crab.
He hoped to see a particular hypnotic camouflage displaying the use of the cuttlefish during the attack. But the cephalopods had their own innovations to show.
“The first time I saw these hunting exhibitions was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen,” said Dr. Santon.
In a series of dives in the next year, he and his team have shot more than 200 hunts of cuttlefish, Crab–Eye View. In a study published last month in the journal EcologyScientists have documented four models of the elaborate body used by the cuttlefish, including what seemed to be imitations of derivative leaves or corals. The cuttlefish exhibitions can somehow hack the visual system of their prey, which can hide their movement or convince crabs, they are a harmless flora and fauna, rather than cunning predators to end their lives.
The cuttlefish are masters of deception. Like their octopus cousins, animals have skin filled with pigment cells and piston -shaped muscle pumps, which they use to modify their color and texture. They can camouflage almost instantly to hide predators, blend into the seabed, for example, or disguise themselves as rocks or algae. In laboratories, scientists have also observed some of these sophisticated behaviors as the cuttlefish hunt. But this hunting capacity has rarely been studied in nature.
Using a GoPro camera, a plexiglass and living crabs, the researchers filmed the cuttlefish of the club wide around the Kri and Mansuar islands in eastern Indonesia. In any case, less than several feet from the crab, the cuttlefish took one of the four forms described in the study using names that evoke combat techniques.
In a form, the bandwidth, the cuttlefish becomes gray and passes the rhythmic black stripes in their body, which researchers may suggest a non -threatening movement to hide their imminent presence.
As a leaf, the cuttlefish becomes a pale green and turn slowly, perhaps similar to a mangrove leaf drifting in the water column.
During the branching of the coral, they adopt coralline patterns and raise folded arms, creating an appearance similar to the Staghorn coral.
For the impulse technique, the cuttlefish pulls its arms upwards in a cone and the black pulse waves to the tips. It can imitate something that is not threatening, suggest researchers, like a little fish.
The movements of the models can “give more time to the cuttlefish when approaching,” said Trevor WardillA sensory neurobiologist from the University of Minnesota. He added that he wonders “how evolution has built such a system, because even young animals can do it”.
The cuttlefish used the 12% ramification coral technique more often during the purple mangrove crab hunt, which were better armed and armored than other crabs. This suggests the possibility that they adapt screens to specific prey.
“The underlying question is to what extent are innate answers, or if they are able to mix in a flexible manner different components of behavior and to find out about different situations – whether it is a form of superior cognition,” said Daniel OsorioNeuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England.
Sometimes the cuttlefish quickly moved between disguises – a tactic that cephalopods use to dissuade predators. As the cuttlefish must move to hunt, they are exposed, said Dr. Osorio, and the displays can be as much to confuse predators as their prey.
“Whether or not the cuttlefish learns to adjust their predatory displays, they always reflect an impressive degree of neural treatment power,” said Rachel BlaserProfessor of neuroscience, cognition and behavior at the University of San Diego. “It represents an extremely sophisticated level of engine coordination.”
The results also suggest that the cuttlefish has a larger repertoire of displays than that studied in the laboratory: perhaps the captive cuttlefish have not felt the need to make the pussy that is already dead, said Dr. Santon.
Or maybe they get bored a little.
“I’m still in nature,” he said. “And I think animals should be looked at in nature.”