Cannibalism of newly-metamorphosed juvenile sea stars

Cannibalism is widespread across the animal kingdom, occurring in more than 1300 species of invertebrates and vertebrates across terrestrial and aquatic habitats (Fox, 1975; Polis, 1981; Elgar and Crespi, 1992). Cannibalism, defined as the consumption of all or part of a conspecific individual, can occur during multiple stages in the life cycle of an organism (Elgar and Crespi, 1992).  As such, cannibalism potentially affects animal behavior, life history strategies, population size and reproductive success (Cushing et al., 2015). Intra- and inter-specific competition, overcrowding, lack of food, or poor quality food are all stressors that induce cannibalistic behavior (Elgar et al., 1992). Cannibalistic individuals should even be selected for since those individuals would gain nutritional resources with high stoichiometric compatibility and face decreased intraspecific competition (MacArthur et al., 1966; Mitra & Flynn, 2005). Acquisition of high quality nutrients and reduced compe...