A world-first study on the Great Barrier Reef shows crown-of-thorns starfish have the ability to find their own way home—a behaviour previously undocumented—but only if their neighbourhood is stocked with their favourite food: corals.
Australian researchers observed the starfish emerging from their shelters in the afternoons so they could feed on coral during the night before returning home at dawn.
“The crown-of-thorns starfish often partied all night, slept-in and only those with a well-stocked larder found their way home—so it’s very much a teenager model of behaviour,” said lead author Dr Scott Ling from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.
“Their preferred prey is Acropora corals,” said co-author Professor Morgan Pratchett from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (CoralCoE at JCU). Acropora is an important coral species—for the past two million years they have been the building blocks of reefs across the world. Read more