Early familiarization overrides innate prey preference in newly hatched Sepia officinalis cuttlefish
Section snippets
Methods
Sepia officinalis eggs were obtained from a single egg-laying bout of a single female (hence homogenizing the date of hatching) that was originally fished by traps in the vicinity of Luc-sur-Mer, Calvados, France and kept in a large tank (1500 litres) at the ‘Centre de Recherches en Environnement Côtier’, Luc-sur-Mer, France. Eggs initially laid in clusters were separated to ensure optimum development conditions and were put in strainers floating in tanks. All tanks were supplied with running
Results
In group 1, two of 20 eggs failed to hatch so that the final sample was 18. On day 3, 14 of the 18 juveniles of group 1 chose crabs and four chose shrimps. In group 2, nine of 10 juveniles chose crabs and one chose shrimps. Hence in both treated groups, juveniles chose significantly more crabs than shrimps (chi-square exact test: group 1: χ12 = 5.6, P < 0.05; group 2: χ12 = 6.4, P < 0.05; Fig. 1). At the same age, eight cuttlefish from group 3 chose shrimps, one chose crabs and one made no choice.
Discussion
We found that a simple visual exposure to a naturally nonpreferred prey immediately at hatching, for a period of 5 h, was sufficient to induce a significant change in the juvenile cuttlefish's initial preference. As a consequence, prey recognition seems to be not simply genetically guided but also influenced by visual stimulation at hatching, and potentially during the last stages of embryonic development. This study also shows that the behaviour of newly hatched cuttlefish is plastic with
Acknowledgments
We thank the staff of the Centre de Recherches en Environnement Côtier for their technical assistance. We are very grateful to John Harris and Christine Harris for helping to correct the English. This research was supported by a grant from the French embassy in Israel (Keshet program number 29) to N.S.
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N. Shashar is at the Interuniversity Institute of Eilat, P.O. Box 469, Eilat 88103, Israel.