Mattheo Santon, a marine visual ecologist from the Bristol University in England, has been on an almost two-year long research journey thousands of miles away from home, studying reefs near Indonesia. Just recently, this journey has come to a close. Santon’s goal of documenting the unique patterns of cuttlefish when hunting has been delivered to scientists all over the world, including neuroscientists and other marine biologists. 

Using live crabs, one of a cuttlefish’s favorite dietary items, as bait, Mattheo attached GoPros to the top of the crab using plexiglass plates, and waited for his research specimen to come. While the entire experiment might have been easier to conduct with cuttlefish in captivity, Mattheo says, “I’m always out in the wild, and I think animals should be looked at in the wild,” according to The New York Times. He and his team filmed more than 200 cuttlefish hunts in the past two years and published a scientific paper on their findings just last month in the journal Ecology. 

At first, Mattheo was hoping to see the hypnotic camouflage display. Previous researchers had speculated cuttlefish display when hunting. However, what he found was something completely different and all the more spectacular. 

While cuttlefish are not as well-known as their cousin, the octopus, they have the same skills of deception used to catch their prey. According to The New York Times, “the animals have skin filled with pigment-loaded cells and piston-like muscular pumps, which they use to alter their color and texture. They can camouflage almost instantaneously to hide from predators, blending into the seafloor, for example, or disguising themselves as rocks or algae.”

Within the 200 documented films, four main groups of hunting techniques were discovered. The first, named the “passing stripe,” featured a grayish-brownish body which passed black stripes through its body, from its head to the tips of its arms. 

The second, nicknamed the “leaf” for its striking similarity, the cuttlefish turns a pale green hue and flattens itself, then twists around slowly in the water while approaching its prey, mimicking a mangrove leaf drifting in the water. 

Another form, called the “branching coral” formation, featured cuttlefish adopting coraline patterns on their arms and body, and raising their arms in a coral-like shape, mimicking the shape of a floating piece of staghorn coral. 

Finally, the “pulse” technique is when a cuttlefish pulls its arms and itself into the shape of a small fish, and emits small black waves along its body, pretending to be a small fish in the water. The black lines symbolize the ripples of the water and shade on the fish’s body. 

While these techniques used to hunt are certainly impressive, the most shocking find of the study was the incidence in which a cuttlefish used these tactics. It was shown, according to the Ecology, that the cuttlefish used the branching coral twelve percent more than usual when hunting a specific, armored type of crab called the purple mangrove crab. This discovery hints at the possibility of the cuttlefish tailoring its hunting patterns based on the prey it is trying to catch. Oftentimes, the cuttlefish also switches between disguises to deter predators. 

These findings reveal just how clever cuttlefish really are, showing a level of adaptability that hints at deeper intelligence. Whether they’re learning from experience or relying on instinct, their ability to switch hunting techniques suggests complex neural processing at work. As researchers continue to uncover more about these fascinating creatures, it’s clear that there’s still much to learn about the hidden intelligence of one of the ocean’s most elusive hunters.