Urchin Tool Use!

Last year, during an extremely fun and productive stay with People and the Sea in Malapacua, Cebu, I started working on sea urchin behavior! Far from being passive, boring animals, they move around, interact and even, so we argue, use tools! The covering behavior of these animals has been known for a while: if you observe urchins during your next dives, you will see that some species are covered with coral rubble, seagrass or even human rubbish. This material does not just randomly get stuck to their spines, but they select what to put on their bodies, and load it with coordinated movements of their spines and tube feet. We studied four sea urchin species which engage in this behavior.

Now the study is out, so far on a preprint server. We are still working on having it published in a peer-reviewed journal. Wish us luck!

This is a fascinating topic, and many thanks to Dr. Glyn Barrett for inviting me to work on it. Here is a video we made with some really cool (I think) footage of the urchins, and Glyn telling a story about their dangerous venom:

And I also gave a talk at the University of the Philippines, Dilliman about the topic: