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The Colours of Octopus: Using Spectral Data to Measure Octopus Camouflage.

Luis Nahmad-Rohen1,2, Yusuf H Qureshi1, Misha Vorobyev2

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Vision (Basel, Switzerland)
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Octopuses can change their skin

Keywords:
camouflagecolour matchingoctopusspectrometryvisual systems

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Camouflage
  • Vision science

Background:

  • Octopuses possess highly malleable skin, enabling adaptation to diverse environments.
  • Despite their camouflage abilities, octopuses are color-blind, possessing only one type of visual pigment.
  • Skin chromatophores are thought to respond to brightness, not color, in octopuses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether octopuses can match background colors.
  • To analyze the spectral reflectance of Octopus tetricus skin and common background objects.
  • To model octopus coloration under the visual systems of potential predators.

Main Methods:

  • Spectroradiometry was used to measure reflectance spectra of Octopus tetricus skin.
  • Skin spectra were compared to those of green algae, brown algae, and sponges.
  • Reflectance spectra were modeled for dichromatic, trichromatic, and tetrachromatic visual systems.

Main Results:

  • Octopuses alter both lightness and chromaticity of their skin.
  • Octopus coloration did not always match the saturation of background objects.
  • Octopuses demonstrated the ability to match certain background colors for specific predator visual systems.

Conclusions:

  • Octopuses can effectively camouflage by adjusting skin lightness and chromaticity.
  • Color-matching capabilities in color-blind octopuses remain an area for further research.
  • Camouflage effectiveness varies depending on the visual system of the observer.