Can a mantis recognize people?

Leviathan_XE

New member
I was watching this show on animal planet last night and they did a seg on the mantis saying that it had some of the best eyes on the planet, they even went so far as to say that the mantis can recognize and differentiate between different people. I'm considering keeping a mantis and wanted to know is that true? On another note, being a beginner to the hobby is there any particular species that aren't suitable for someone such as my self, I love the coloration of the peacock but I hear they get on the large side, I'm looking for something bright and beautiful(like that adorable Gatorade!) that can be kept in a 6 gal.
 
I wouldn't doubt that they can distinguish between people. My fish run and hide when other people come up to the tank. But when I come by they all come out. They know I feed them and distinguish me from others.

As far as your mantis goes it would need to be a mantis only tank as they will most likely kill other tankmates.
 
The first question that needs to be addressed is what do you mean by "recognize" people. A book could be written on this and many have. I'll just assume that we all have a general understanding of what it means to recognize another person based on appearence. Sound and odour are for another discussion..

There is no question that some stomatopods have the capacity to make the visual comparisons necessary to distinguish among humans. However, experiements proving that animals actually recognize individuals of another species are difficult. Spend a little time at an "octopus" site and you will see lots of claims by people that their pet octopus recognizes them, comes out to play when only they enter the room, jets water at strangers, etc. The problem with such accounts is that it is very difficult to control all the variables to "prove" recognition. Aside from facial differences, there are going to be differences in size, shape, dress, posture, time of day, direction and/or speed of approach, etc., etc. Whether the animal actually recognizes the individual based on specific spacial characteristics or gestalt, or is responding to general characteristics requires controlled experimentation where as many variables as possible are held constant and just one is systematically varied.

An easy way to do this is with photographs or video presentations where the image can be presented in the same way, but certain key variables altered. Unfortunately, stomatopod eyes are such that they do not respond as expected to video or color photos.

All that said, I'm convinced that some stomatopods such as O. scyllarus do recognize subtle differences in human form and may respond differently to them.

Roy
 
When I still had my O. scyllarus, it would watch me from it's lair, and only come out when I fed. OTOH, when my wife would watch the tank, it would come out and investigate, give her they eyeball, and roam around. I was also the one who occassionally had to herd it into a container when I needed to do some tank maintenace, which ****ed her off to no end. We'd sit in the same chair and face the same direction when watching her, so my conclusion was that it could tell the difference between us. Given their visual actuaity, and that my wife is a petite little blond with glasses, and I've got brown hair and am anything but petite, I don't find it hard to believe at all.
 
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