Social Media and citizen science provide valuable data for behavioural ecology research: Are cuttlefish using pursuit deterrent signals during hunting?

Abstract

Obtaining robust, analysable data sets from wild marine animals is fraught with difficulties, dangers, expense, often without success. Scientists are becoming increasingly reliant on citizen scientists to help fill in gaps where they exist, especially in the area of biodiversity. Here, uniquely, we use social media and citizen science videos to investigate the behavioural ecology of hunting in five cuttlefish species - Metasepia pfefferi (N = 24), Sepia apama (N = 13), Sepia latimanus (N = 8), Sepia officinalis (N = 17), and Sepia pharaonis (N = 23). We find that hunting strategies and prey type differ between species as do the types of behaviours used by the five species studied here. We also use kinematic permutation analysis to elucidate chains of behaviours, finding that cuttlefish significantly use a mixture of predator behaviours but also prey-like behaviours, such as warning signals and possibly even a pursuit-deterrent signal during the final moments of hunting. We also show and discuss significant intraspecific differences.