A world-first study on the Great Barrier Reef shows crown-of-thorns starfish have the ability to find their own way home\u2014a behaviour previously undocumented\u2014but only if their neighbourhood is stocked with their favourite food: corals.
\nAustralian 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crown-of-thorns starfish often partied all night, slept-in and only those with a well-stocked larder found their way home\u2014so it\u2019s very much a teenager model of behaviour,\u201d said lead author Dr Scott Ling from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir preferred prey is Acropora corals,\u201d 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\u2014for the past two million years they have been the building blocks of reefs across the world. Read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A world-first study on the Great Barrier Reef shows crown-of-thorns starfish have the ability to find their own way home\u2014a behaviour previously undocumented\u2014but only if their neighbourhood is stocked with … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post_format-post-format-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t