Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 84, Issue 1, Pages 213-217Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.04.035
Keywords
cuttlefish; embryo; generalization; imprinting; Sepia officinalis; vision
Categories
Funding
- French Ministry of Education
- regional council of Basse-Normandie
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Juvenile cuttlefish spontaneously prefer shrimp to crabs. This preference can be changed by early visual learning during embryonic and postembryonic life and has been related to a form of food imprinting. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether generalization occurs in conjunction with this early learning process. We found that inexperienced hatchling cuttlefish preferred 'black' to 'white crab' for their first meal, the black ink envelope of cuttlefish eggs did not prevent embryos discriminating between black and white crabs and embryonic or postembryonic visual familiarization to 'white crabs' induced a subsequent visual preference for 'white crabs' over 'black crabs' in the hatchling's first meal. Finally, juvenile cuttlefish previously pre- or postnatally exposed to 'white crabs' preferred 'black crabs' to shrimp, indicating for the first time that prey generalization occurs as early as the embryonic stages in cuttlefish. Such cognitive abilities could confer important adaptive advantages in processing information about prey likely to be available in the egg-laying environment at hatching and in the course of juvenile dispersal. (C) 2012 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available