How Do Cuttlefish Eyes Change When They Hunt?

When a cuttlefish sees something it wants to eat, the eyes move from the sides of the head to the front, and the animal becomes a depth-perception hunter.

Andrew Huberman studied cuttlefish in his lab in San Diego. Cuttlefish are cephalopods, like octopuses. They normally swim with the eyes on the sides of the head, wary, with near 360 degree vision, because they are prey and can see far behind them. They have no skeleton for protection, only a bone that lets them float, so they are basically a protein snack. The eye move happens first. Body patterns then change through chromophores, camouflage drops away, and hunting takes over. He says the shift is real: it recruits machinery in the brain and body and shuts down every other job. He describes a small, gentle animal turning into a vicious killer.

Ross Edgley takes the same switch as the berserker. Nature leaves clues, success leaves clues, and biomimicry is how he reads the pattern. He thinks humans have lost some of the cues. On his next swim he plans to switch the state on during the session. He will keep the lane, the distance, and the water temperature fixed, then start the experiment.