Clever Cuttlefish Show Advanced Self-Control, Like Chimps and Crows snopes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from snopes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The results, published today in the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provide the first evidence of a link between self-control and intelligence in a non-primate species.
To conduct the experiment, common cuttlefish (
Sepia officinalis) in tanks were presented with two foods they commonly eat, each in a separate Perspex chamber. In one chamber was a piece of king prawn, which they could eat immediately. In the other was a live grass shrimp, their preferred food, but they could only have the shrimp if they waited and didn’t eat the prawn.
A range of delays were tested, starting at 10 seconds and increasing by 10 seconds each time. All six cuttlefish in the experiment showed self-control, waiting for the grass shrimp and ignoring the king prawn. Those with the most self-control could wait 130 seconds for the grass shrimp to be released – an ability comparable with large-brained animals like chimpanzees.
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IMAGE: The common cuttlefish, Sepia officianalis, in the Marine Resources Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. view more
Credit: Alexandra Schnell
WOODS HOLE, Mass. - Much like the popular TikTok challenge where kids resist eating snacks, cuttlefish can do the same! Cuttlefish can delay gratification - wait for a better meal rather than be tempted by the one at hand - and those that can wait longest also do better in a learning test, scientists have discovered.
This intriguing report marks the first time a link between self-control and intelligence has been found in an animal other than humans and chimpanzees. It is published this week in
When I enter the marine laboratory in the morning, there’s always a chance I’m about to get soaked. You see, our crankiest common cuttlefish, called Franklin, has recently taken to squirting a water jet at me from her tank. I’ve decided it’s her grumpy way of saying she doesn’t want to participate in experiments, because Franklin never hoses me during my evening visits, which is when I’m only in the lab to give her dinner.
Cuttlefish are clever creatures, and squirting saltwater is not their only party trick. They’re experts at camouflage, adjusting the colour and texture of their skin to match their environment. Plus, cuttlefish possess a range of advanced cognitive abilities, including a sophisticated memory, to help them optimise their foraging behaviour and adapt to changing prey conditions.
Fast-learning cuttlefish pass the snacking test | University of Chicago News uchicago.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from uchicago.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.