| Title |
Camouflaging in a Complex Environment—Octopuses Use Specific Features of Their Surroundings for Background Matching
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, May 2012
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0037579 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Noam Josef, Piero Amodio, Graziano Fiorito, Nadav Shashar |
| Abstract |
Living under intense predation pressure, octopuses evolved an effective and impressive camouflaging ability that exploits features of their surroundings to enable them to "blend in." To achieve such background matching, an animal may use general resemblance and reproduce characteristics of its entire surroundings, or it may imitate a specific object in its immediate environment. Using image analysis algorithms, we examined correlations between octopuses and their backgrounds. Field experiments show that when camouflaging, Octopus cyanea and O. vulgaris base their body patterns on selected features of nearby objects rather than attempting to match a large field of view. Such an approach enables the octopus to camouflage in partly occluded environments and to solve the problem of differences in appearance as a function of the viewing inclination of the observer. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 16 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 4 | 25% |
| Chile | 1 | 6% |
| Australia | 1 | 6% |
| United States | 1 | 6% |
| Unknown | 9 | 56% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 9 | 56% |
| Scientists | 4 | 25% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 13% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 6% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 116 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | <1% |
| Italy | 1 | <1% |
| Luxembourg | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 113 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 24 | 21% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 16 | 14% |
| Researcher | 14 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 10 | 9% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 7 | 6% |
| Other | 15 | 13% |
| Unknown | 30 | 26% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 52 | 45% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 6 | 5% |
| Psychology | 5 | 4% |
| Neuroscience | 3 | 3% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 3 | 3% |
| Other | 14 | 12% |
| Unknown | 33 | 28% |