Dramatic Fighting by Male Cuttlefish for a Female Mate

Male cuttlefish compete for females with a repertoire of visually dramatic behaviors. Laboratory experiments have explored this system in Sepia officinalis, but corroborative field data have eluded collection attempts by many researchers. While scuba diving in Turkey, we fortuitously filmed an inten...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 2017-07, Vol.190 (1), p.144-151
Main Authors: Allen, Justine J., Akkaynak, Derya, Schnell, Alexandra K., Hanlon, Roger T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Animal biology
Animals
Biting
Cognitive science
Cognitive Sciences
Conflict resolution
Copulation
Decapodiformes
Diving
Economic conditions
Economic forecasts
Economic indicators
Female
Females
Fighting
Game theory
Invertebrate Zoology
Life Sciences
Male
Natural History Note
Neurons and Cognition
Neuroscience
Psychology and behavior
Scuba diving
Self-assessment
Sepia
Statistical data
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Summary:Male cuttlefish compete for females with a repertoire of visually dramatic behaviors. Laboratory experiments have explored this system in Sepia officinalis, but corroborative field data have eluded collection attempts by many researchers. While scuba diving in Turkey, we fortuitously filmed an intense sequence of consort/intruder behaviors in which the consort lost and then regained his female mate from the intruder. These agonistic bouts escalated in stages, leading to fast dramatic expression of the elaborate intense zebra display and culminating in biting and inking as the intruder male attempted a forced copulation of the female. When analyzed in the context of game theory, the patterns of fighting behavior were more consistent with mutual assessment than self-assessment of fighting ability. Additional observations of these behaviors in nature are needed to conclusively determine which models best represent conflict resolution, but our field observations agree with laboratory findings and provide a valuable perspective.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/692009