Squid Filmed Changing Color For The First Time

While octopuses and cuttlefish are known for using camouflage to blend in with their surroundings, Squid has never been documented. Scientists from the Physics and Biology Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have now demonstrated that can and will camouflage to match a substrate to avoid predators in research published in Scientific Reports. This finding offers new research areas into how view and understand the world. It also provides insight into their behavior, which might help conservation efforts.

Dr. Ryuta Nakajima said that Squid float in the open ocean, but we wanted to see what happens if they migrate closer to a coral reef or if they’re pursued to the ocean floor by a predator. If the substrate is for to avoid predation, then increases or declines in Squid populations are considerably more linked to coral reef health than we previously assumed.

Cuttlefish and octopus have been the subjects of old investigations on cephalopod camouflage. Squid dwell in the open ocean and are famously difficult to keep in captivity, so they’ve been disregarded for this type of study. Scientists at the OIST Physics and Biology Unit have been rearing an oval species in captivity since 2017.

This Squid is one of three oval found there. They are light in hue on the open water, blending in with the ocean surface and the flashing sunshine above. Researchers predicted that when they got closer to the ocean below, things would change dramatically.