Changeable cuttlefish camouflage is influenced by horizontal and vertical aspects of the visual background |
| |
Authors: | Alexandra Barbosa Leonild Litman Roger T Hanlon |
| |
Institution: | (1) Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;(2) Marine Resources Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA;(3) Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Cuttlefish change their appearance rapidly for camouflage on different backgrounds. Effective camouflage for a benthic organism
such as cuttlefish must deceive predators viewing from above as well as from the side, thus the choice of camouflage skin
pattern is expected to account for horizontal and vertical background information. Previous experiments dealt only with the
former, and here we explore some influences of background patterns oriented vertically in the visual background. Two experiments
were conducted: (1) to determine whether cuttlefish cue visually on vertical background information; and (2) if a visual cue
presented singly (either horizontally or vertically) is less, equally or more influential than a visual cue presented both
horizontally and vertically. Combinations of uniform and checkerboard backgrounds (either on the bottom or wall) evoked disruptive
coloration in all cases, implying that high-contrast, non-uniform backgrounds are responded to with priority over uniform
backgrounds. However, there were differences in the expression of disruptive components if the checkerboard was presented
simultaneously on the bottom and wall, or solely on the wall or the bottom. These results demonstrate that cuttlefish respond
to visual background stimuli both in the horizontal and vertical plane, a finding that supports field observations of cuttlefish
and octopus camouflage.
Both A. Barbosa and L. Litman are first authors.
An erratum to this article can be found at |
| |
Keywords: | Visual ecology Cephalopod behavior Crypsis Disruptive coloration Sepia officinalis |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|