1/8/2023 0 Comments To move closer squeed overThe experiment uncovered an ability that had never previously been reported in squid. But when they were above the algae, they promptly became darker. When the squid were in the clean side of the tank, they were the light color. They placed an underwater camera inside the water and suspended a regular camera above, so they could capture and run statistical tests on any color changes. They kept several squid in a tank and cleaned half of the tank, leaving the other half covered in algae. They noticed that the animals were changing color depending on whether they were over the cleaned surface or the algae.įollowing this observation, the researchers performed a controlled experiment. The researchers were cleaning their tank to remove the algal growth. But the researchers suspected that when they moved closer to the ocean floor, it would be a different story entirely.Īt OIST’s Marine Science Station, the oval squid were, almost accidentally, observed camouflaging to the substrate for the first time. When in the open ocean, they are light in color, meaning that they blend into the ocean surface and flickering sunlight above. This squid, locally known as Shiro-ika, is one of three oval squids found in Okinawa. But, since 2017, the scientists in the OIST’s Physics and Biology Unit have been culturing a species of oval squid in captivity. Squid, as an animal that tends to live in the open ocean, are notoriously hard to keep in captivity and so have been rather avoided for this kind of research. Previous studies on cephalopod camouflage have mostly been conducted on cuttlefish and octopus. “If substrate is important for squid to avoid predation than that indicates that increases or decreases in squid populations are even more tied to the health of coral reef than we thought.” Ryuta Nakajima, OIST visiting researcher. “Squid usually hover in the open ocean but we wanted to find out what happens when they move a bit closer to a coral reef or if they’re chased by a predator to the ocean floor,” explained one of the three first authors, Dr. Furthermore, it sheds light on their behavior, and thus could go on to inform conservation initiatives. This work opens up research avenues on how squid see and perceive the world around them. Now, in a study published in Scientific Reports, scientists from the Physics and Biology Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have shown that squid can and will camouflage to match a substrate as a way of avoiding predators. While octopus and cuttlefish are famous for their use of camouflage to match the color of the substrate, a third type of cephalopod-the squid-has never been reported displaying this ability.
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