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Cuttlefish Communication and Mating

Friday, 12 March 2010

Watch this video and be amazed by cuttlefish! You do not want to miss this extraordinary footage of cuttlefish communicating and mating filmed on reefs in Indonesia. Cephalopods can change the texture and color of their skin thousands of times in just one day. They communicate using their skin. Here you can see how cuttlefish use this adaptation in order to live. The more you know about animals, the better observer you become.

Although cephalopods are some of the smartest invertebrates on the planet, they cannot even tell one another apart except by flashing their colors. When a male displays his zebra patterns, it is as if he is asking, are you a male cuttlefish or a female? If it is another male, they may flash colors and fight. If the other cuttlefish does not display zebra stripes back, then the male knows this animal is female.

The footage filmed for this video was shot over the course of one dive. When descending upon the reef, Ocean Annie immediately found a cuttlefish who had just eaten lunch and had a fish in her arms. After she finished eating, a small sneaker male kept trying to mate with her. She had no interest in the sneaker male and proceeded to swim along the reef for more than a few hundred yards. After a long swim, she came upon another couple of cuttlefish and an egg laying site. The female wanted to lay her eggs in a coral bommie, but upon approaching the coral head, she was greeted by another male cuttlefish. He flashed his stripes to see if she was a male or female. Once they established the fact there was a female and male, the male proceeded to win her over to mate. There is a dance that happens before cuttlefish mate. The male cuttlefish flashes color displays and will often tickle the female cuttlefish's arms before the mating dance begins. On this dive there were a couple of other males trying to mate with this female. The larger male had to fight off two other cuttlefish. Finally, after the couple mated the female proceeded to lay her eggs.

One of the reasons Ocean Annie knew the behavior of these animals was because of both self-study, observation and scientific expeditions with Dr. Crissy Huffard and Dr. Roger Hanlon. These animals are at the top of the favorite list!

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