Researchers have captured the hypnotic hunting displays of wild cuttlefish. Video footage shows the animals impersonating a leaf and branching coral as they sneak up on prey.
Scientists at University of Bristol and University of Papua, Indonesia, led by Matteo Santon, observed wild broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) hunting off Kri and Mansuar islands in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. They presented the cuttlefish with a live crab then filmed the predator approaching its prey.
"Predators can make use of a range of camouflage strategies to hunt prey,” the study authors say in their new paper, published in Ecology. “Cuttlefish use a strategy of stealth.”
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Sepia cuttlefish are well known for their astonishing ability to camouflage themselves, according to the researchers. During these experiments, they noticed the cuttlefish perform four different displays, which they called 'leaf', 'passing-stripe', 'branching coral' and 'pulse'.
The footage shows dark stripes flashing down the animal’s body (passing-stripe) or pulsing from the cuttlefish’s mantle (head) towards the tips of its arms (pulse display). To transform into branching coral, it splays out its arms on approach.
“When using the leaf display, cuttlefish adopt a greenish colour,” says the paper, and swims towards the crab in a wave-like motion “reminiscent of the movement of a mangrove leaf carried by the current.”
Main image: broadclub cuttlefish performing its passing-stripe display/Matteo Santon
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