Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)

Cuttlefish are known for their ability to quickly alter their total appearance, or body pattern, to camouflage or to communicate with predators, prey and conspecifics. The body patterns of some species have been extensively documented to gain a better understanding of their behaviors. However, the f...

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Main Authors: Amber Thomas, Christy MacDonald
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2016-05-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/2035.pdf
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spelling doaj-4413c5f40b044c53b575c73e01e04d272020-11-24T22:38:40ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592016-05-014e203510.7717/peerj.2035Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)Amber Thomas0Christy MacDonald1The Seas, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment, Lake Buena Vista, FL, United StatesThe Seas, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment, Lake Buena Vista, FL, United StatesCuttlefish are known for their ability to quickly alter their total appearance, or body pattern, to camouflage or to communicate with predators, prey and conspecifics. The body patterns of some species have been extensively documented to gain a better understanding of their behaviors. However, the flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) is largely unstudied. Recently, aquarists have been able to breed, house and display M. pfefferi, giving researchers ample opportunities to study their behavior under those conditions. This study aimed to identify the dorsally-visible components of the body patterns used by 5 sexually-mature, freely-behaving, F5 generation M. pfefferi in their home aquarium at The Seas in Epcot at Walt Disney World Resorts®, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA. Furthermore, we aimed to determine the most probable patterns used by this population of animals and to create a database of components that can be used in future behavioral studies. We found that this population of M. pfefferi use a combination of 7 textural, 14 postural, 7 locomotor and between 42 and 75 chromatic components in their home aquarium. Using maximum likelihood analysis and AutoClass@IJM software, we found that these components combine to generate 11 distinct body patterns. The software was able to sort 98% of the live animal observations into one of the 11 patterns with 90% confidence and 88% of observations with 99% confidence. Unusually for cuttlefish, 8 of the 11 identified patterns contained at least one “traveling” component (i.e., traveling waves or blinking spots) in which the colors on the skin appeared to travel on the animal’s mantle. In other species, these components are generally seen during hunting or aggression, but this population of M. pfefferi uses them frequently during a variety of contexts in their home aquarium. With few published data on the behavior of M. pfefferi in their natural environment, we cannot compare the behavior of the tank-raised individuals in this study to animals in the wild. However, this study provides the groundwork necessary for future studies of M. pfefferi body patterning and behavior.https://peerj.com/articles/2035.pdfBody patterningCuttlefishMetasepia pfefferiAutoClassCommunicationBehavior
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Amber Thomas
Christy MacDonald
spellingShingle Amber Thomas
Christy MacDonald
Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
PeerJ
Body patterning
Cuttlefish
Metasepia pfefferi
AutoClass
Communication
Behavior
author_facet Amber Thomas
Christy MacDonald
author_sort Amber Thomas
title Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
title_short Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
title_full Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
title_fullStr Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
title_full_unstemmed Investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi)
title_sort investigating body patterning in aquarium-raised flamboyant cuttlefish (metasepia pfefferi)
publisher PeerJ Inc.
series PeerJ
issn 2167-8359
publishDate 2016-05-01
description Cuttlefish are known for their ability to quickly alter their total appearance, or body pattern, to camouflage or to communicate with predators, prey and conspecifics. The body patterns of some species have been extensively documented to gain a better understanding of their behaviors. However, the flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) is largely unstudied. Recently, aquarists have been able to breed, house and display M. pfefferi, giving researchers ample opportunities to study their behavior under those conditions. This study aimed to identify the dorsally-visible components of the body patterns used by 5 sexually-mature, freely-behaving, F5 generation M. pfefferi in their home aquarium at The Seas in Epcot at Walt Disney World Resorts®, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA. Furthermore, we aimed to determine the most probable patterns used by this population of animals and to create a database of components that can be used in future behavioral studies. We found that this population of M. pfefferi use a combination of 7 textural, 14 postural, 7 locomotor and between 42 and 75 chromatic components in their home aquarium. Using maximum likelihood analysis and AutoClass@IJM software, we found that these components combine to generate 11 distinct body patterns. The software was able to sort 98% of the live animal observations into one of the 11 patterns with 90% confidence and 88% of observations with 99% confidence. Unusually for cuttlefish, 8 of the 11 identified patterns contained at least one “traveling” component (i.e., traveling waves or blinking spots) in which the colors on the skin appeared to travel on the animal’s mantle. In other species, these components are generally seen during hunting or aggression, but this population of M. pfefferi uses them frequently during a variety of contexts in their home aquarium. With few published data on the behavior of M. pfefferi in their natural environment, we cannot compare the behavior of the tank-raised individuals in this study to animals in the wild. However, this study provides the groundwork necessary for future studies of M. pfefferi body patterning and behavior.
topic Body patterning
Cuttlefish
Metasepia pfefferi
AutoClass
Communication
Behavior
url https://peerj.com/articles/2035.pdf
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