The Cleverness of Cuttlefish

Makisha Kumaran

Published in

Simply Wild

3 min readJan 28, 2024

If you think an octopus is smart, wait until you hear about their cousins!

About the cuttlefish

There are roughly 120 species of cuttlefish discovered so far, but they can be found in virtually all oceans. Typically, they are found in deep waters in the winter and migrate into shallow reefs for mating in the summer.

Short facts:

Their scientific name is Sepiida.
Their life span is only 1 to 2 years, but within this time they rapidly grow from 1 to 20 inches, feeding mainly on small crustaceans.
They are invertebrates that belong to the molluscan class cephalopoda, so are related to the squid and octopus. This means they have distinct eight short arms and two long tentacles.
They are usually solitary creatures, unable to form connections with their mates and offspring.

Delayed gratification

The study, conducted by Alex Schnell from the University of Cambridge and colleagues, involved six cuttlefish undergoing the classic marshmallow test. In the study they called this task an “inter-temporal delay maintenance task,” assessing the animals’ ability to delay gratification for a greater reward. The cuttlefish were given their second favourite food, king prawn. They were then given the option to wait for their favourite food, shrimp.

So what were the results? All six cuttlefish exercised self-control and waited for the delayed reward (the shrimp), indicating an understanding of future planning and delayed gratification. This is a test which even most human children fail!

Schnell says “rats, chickens and pigeons find it difficult to resist temptation and only wait for several seconds.” On the other hand, “animals such as chimpanzees, crows and parrots show more self-control and wait up to several minutes. And the cuttlefish in our study waited up to between 50 to 130 seconds.”

Learning performance

In the same study, they put coloured markers into the tank and taught the cuttlefish to associate a certain colour marker with food, by dropping food when the cuttlefish went to the marker. After swapping the colours, the cuttlefish were quickly able to re-associate the correct colour with the food! The researchers believe that the results are linked to the cuttlefish’s foraging strategies. As opportunistic predators, they must carefully choose when to break their camouflage and attack their prey.

Other interesting facts- cuttlefish camouflage!

Why can so many cephalopods like octopuses, squid and cuttlefish change colour? Well, they contain structures called chromatophores in their skin, which contain tiny sacs of pigments. When the cuttlefish wishes to change colour the chromatophores can be opened neurally, which essentially means they change colour in a matter of milliseconds, as fast as a human can blink!

They also have reflector cells called leucophores. They are special cells that scatter full spectrum light so that they appear white or have a transparent outline.

“The leucophores are thought to affect the intensity of the presented chromatophores by providing a white backdrop, as well as aiding in colour matching” (Gilmore, 2016).

It is clear that cuttlefish possess a level of cognitive sophistication previously underestimated, which is why scientists regard them as one of the most intelligent invertebrates (after their cousins the octopuses of course!)