Innate response to first feeding in Octopus berrima hatchlings despite embryonic food imprinting

What is it about?

Imprinting is a behavioural process that occurs in some species, by which an attachment or preference is formed for an object, individual, or environment. It typically occurs early in life during a critical period and can last throughout life. A classic example would be the ground-breaking work of Konrad Lorenz, who found that ducks, upon hatching, become strongly attached to the first moving object that they encounter, including Lorenz himself. While imprinting has been extensively studied in birds, it is relatively less known in other taxa such as cephalopods. Hence we explored this behaviour in Octopus berrima. These hatchlings showed a baseline preference for isopods>amphipods>mussels. We exposed different sets of embryos to different prey types i.e. either isopods, amphipods or mussels. After hatching, they were given all 3 prey types to choose from. In the groups that were embryonically exposed to amphipods or mussels, the hatchlings retained their preference for isopods even though these groups had never been exposed to isopods. This suggests a strong pre-determined response to isopods, which cannot be modified with exposure to alternative prey types. This behaviour can be advantageous whenever the preferred prey is present as there is less risk involved in misidentifying predators as food, but may be problematic in our changing environment. More studies will be needed to explore how such behaviour impacts their adaptability to the environment.

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