Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
The ability to identify individual free-living animals in the field is an important method for studying their behavior. Apart from invasive external or internal tags, which may cause injury or abnormal behavior, most cephalopods cannot be tagged, as their skin is too soft and delicate for tag retention. Additionally, cephalopods remove many types of tags. However, body markings have been successfully used as a non invasive method to identify individuals of many different species of animals, including whale sharks, grey whales, seals, and zebras. We developed methods to sex and individually identify Caribbean reef squid, Sepiotheuthis sepioidea. Males showed distinct bright dots on their fins on a Basic Brown background and have a light line at the fin edge while the females had a gradual transition from Brown to Pale towards the edge of their fins without showing distinct fin-dots or lines. In the field we used four characters to distinguish individual S. sepioidea from each other – sex, relative size to each other, scars, and patterns of light-colored dots on their mantles and fins. These dot patterns are individually unique and constant in location through time. Observations in the field were backed up by an image database using illustrations and photography.
Recommended Citation
Byrne, R. A., Wood, J. B., Anderson, R. C., Griebel, U., & Mather, J. A. (2010). Non-invasive methods of identifying and tracking wild squid. Ferrantia, 59, 22-31.
Included in
Animal Experimentation and Research Commons, Animal Studies Commons, Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons
