Field observation of escape behaviour with inking in the Japanese pygmy squid (C-change).

(47.3MB, 00:00:39)
Shot Location: Oki island, Shimane, JAPAN

* species
Idiosepius paradoxus

Key Words
Inking
pseudomorph
searching image
secondary defence


Noriyosi Sato
2020/02/18 submitted



Animalia >Mollusca >Cephalopoda >Sepiolidea >Idiosepiidae >Idiosepius >

Video shows that Japanese pygmy squid escape from an action camera mounted on an extension arm with a fishing lure. The squid intermittently ejected ink soon after an escape behaviour was initiated. They then exhibited a sharp change in swimming direction and this behaviour was defined as ¡ÈC-change¡É.

Below is the abstract from the article containing this video:

The characteristic inking behaviour of cephalopods is a secondary defence mechanism that helps them to escape predation. However, although it has been postulated that ink creates a decoy by disrupting the visual information received by the predator, the underlying mechanisms by which ink helps squid to escape from predators remain unknown. Therefore, we observed the inking behaviour of the Japanese pygmy squid (Idiosepius paradoxus). Field observations showed the squid intermittently and linearly ejected ink while rapidly swimming backwards in response to a predator and also changed their bodies to a light colour. This behaviour was then followed by a sudden and sharp change in swimming direction or sometimes a sudden break from swimming with a concurrent change in body colour to black. We also recorded the escape behaviour with inking under captive conditions in response to predatory sculpins, which allowed the successful escape from a predatory attack. Furthermore, the greater the number of ink ejections, the higher the probability that the sculpins would initiate a predatory attack on the ink rather than the squid. Together, these results suggest that squid inking behaviour exhibits a substantial decoy effect on predators and is associated with a series of complex, spatio-temporally regulated behaviours. Digital video images related to the article are available at http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo200107ip01a, http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo200107ip03a, and http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo200107ip04a.

Yuto Hikidi, Noritaka Hirohashi, Takashi Kasugai, and Noriyosi Sato (2020).
An elaborate behavioural sequence reinforces the decoy effect of ink during predatory attacks on squid. J. Ethol. 10.1007/s10164-020-00640-8

(Data No.momo200107ip01a)

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