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WOODS HOLE, Mass. — It sounds like Shakespearean drama: A male fights to protect his mate after a rival steals her away, using all his cunning and strength to win her back. Yet this encounter played out not on the stage, but in the sea, between three cuttlefish—the first time such behavior has been filmed in the wild.
The dramatic encounter was filmed by Derya Akkaynak of University of Haifa and Justine Allen, then a Ph.D. student in the Brown University-Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Graduate Program, while diving in the Aegean Sea in in 2011 with Allen’s doctoral research advisor, MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon.
The team’s analysis of the cuttlefish combat, with contributions by Alexandra Schnell of University of Caen, is published this week in American Naturalist.
Hanlon was “ecstatic” when he saw the dive footage, he says. Although researchers have studied cuttlefish competition and mating behavior in the lab, observing the complex interactions of male-male fighting and mate guarding in the wild has been elusive.
“This was a totally serendipitous video sequence that I had been searching for nonstop for 20 years,” Hanlon says.
Mating Battle Between Wild Cuttlefish Captured on Video for First Time | Marine Biological Laboratory
Contact: Diana [email protected]; 508-289-7139(office) or 508-685-3525(cell) WOODS HOLE, Mass. — It sounds like Shakespearean drama: A male fights to protect his mate after a rival steals her away, using all his cunning and strength to win her back. Yet this encounter played out not on the...
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