Dynamic color change in the grouper Variola louti during interspecific interactions and swimming

Animals can change their body color for various ecological functions. In fish, rapid dynamic color change is primarily known in contexts of intraspecific communication and camouflage, while examples in interspecific contexts are rare. We studied dynamic color changes and their associated behaviors in the grouper Variola louti in its native coral reef environment in the Red Sea. Using underwater videos to record natural behaviors and color-calibrated still images to measure body colors, we quantified color displays as the brightness of the body and the contrast of three distinct patterns: body patches, head stripe, and side bars. V. louti exhibited a diverse range of pattern displays, which rapidly transformed according to its behavioral shifts. A high-contrast head stripe pattern was observed when V. louti engaged in agonistic interspecific interactions, but was interestingly absent when hunting alone or in cooperation with moray eels. The brightness of V. louti’s body color and the con..., , , # Dynamic color change in the grouper Variola louti during interspecific interactions and swimming

Authors: Sagi Marom, Moshe Kiflawi, Derya Akkaynak, Roi Holzman

Journal: Behavioral Ecology

Article DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araf005

Dryad Dataset DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc5t](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc5t)

## Description of the data and file structure

The files related to this article in datadryad.org include:

1. MATLAB files with the code to perform image processing as explained in the article:
* White balancing by RGB equalization.
* Sampling areas from the images and extracting color values.
2. An Excel file with our dataset table and a readme sheet with explanations on every column.

### Files and variables

#### File: MATLAB\_Code.zip

**Description:** MATLAB files with the code to perform image processing as explained in the article:

#### File: Dataset\_and\_readme.xlsx

**Description:** An Excel file with our dataset table and a readme sheet wit...