Stealth and deception: adaptive motion camouflage in hunting broadclub cuttlefish

Maintaining camouflage while moving is a challenge faced by many predators. Some exploit background motion to hide while hunting and others may use coloration and behavior to generate motion noise that impairs detection or recognition. Here, we uncover a unique form of motion camouflage, showing that broadclub cuttlefish pass dark stripes downwards across their head and arms to disguise their hunting maneuvers. This ‘passing-stripe’ display reduces the likelihood of response to predatory expanding stimuli by prey crabs in a lab-based experiment, is modulated according to approach speed during a hunt, and generates a motion pattern that is different to that of looming predators. This form of motion camouflage likely functions by overwhelming the threatening motion of the approaching predator with non-threatening downward motion generated by the rhythmic stripes., , , # Stealth and deception: adaptive motion camouflage in hunting broadclub cuttlefish

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jh9w0vtkq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jh9w0vtkq)

## Description of the data and file structure

The .zip file contains the following folders:

### 01\_treadmill - MATLAB code and raw data of the laboratory experiment:

* The subfolder \"00_scripts\" contains the MATLAB code \"PTB_treadmill_v20_experiment.m\" to replicate the presentation of the stimuli.
* The subfolder \"01_data\" contains the raw data file \"Treadmill_data.csv\" of the laboratory experiment:

- Dataset \"Treadmill_data.csv\" contains the following variables:
* *stimulus :* the type of stimulus shown to crabs during each trial.
* *stripe_wide_RGB*: RGB value of screen used for the main color of the expanding ellipses.
* *stripe_thin_RGB*: RGB value of screen used for the color of the stripes on the expanding ellipses.
* *contrast*: Weber contrast of stimulus with the background.
* *crab_ID*: ID of eac...