Cuttlefish Case Study

Describe how others have addressed the question you are interested in: In a study by Schnell et. al gathered 34 adult giant Australian cuttlefish, 20 of which were male and the remaining 14 were female. They kept male mantle size and weight consistent for their trials. They did 4 different treatments, familiar mated, familiar flushed, unfamiliar mated, and unfamiliar unmated. In the flushed treatment, the replacement female was the same female that the test male had previously mated with, but her sperm receptacle was flushed with saltwater to remove stored sperm accumulated from the first mating opportunity. This was to test the potential chemical signal of sperm in the buccal cavity. Schnell also was testing for if female/male familiarity …show more content…
al did time samples at spawning aggregation locations in Spencer Gulf, off of South Australia. Their sampling as completed between 1000 – 1700 hours over 24 scuba dives in May-June 2000 and 2001. Their trial consisted of 18 females and 29 males in 17 trials. They did an observational study of the interactions between these individuals as well as egg and DNA collection. In the females, they would collect the eggs either directly from the female or from the deposition site. In all participants, they would take tissue samples with a hole punch. With this method of tissue collection, the researchers did not note any change in cuttlefish behavior. Under natural mating conditions, there were 49 observed mating attempts with 18 female, 43% (21 attempts) were refused. The remaining matings were accepted, 13 paired, 1o unpaired, and two sneaker mating. Naud’s conclusion was that there seemed to be an apparent randomness of which females selected to mate …show more content…
As concluded by Naud, there is a level of apparent randomness when it comes to females selecting males to mate with. So do a side-by-side trial, Hall and Naud’s experiment revolved around removing human interaction, so they do have factors to consider, but the subjects are under less stress from outside and unexpected sources. Schell’s experiment doesn’t necessarily revolve around removing those stresses as there is a lot more handling of the subjects, and manipulation of the environment that they’re

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