Why do pufferfish 'wink'? Aquarium in Japan sheds light on unusual behavior
SHIMONOSEKI, Yamaguchi -- Pufferfish exhibit a behavior rarely seen in fish: They close their eyes in a motion resembling a wink. A research team has
Shimonoseki, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, is known as the capital of pufferfish, or fugu, and a recent research team has shed light on an unusual behavior displayed by these fish - eye-winking. Pufferfish close their eyes one at a time, resembling a wink, a behavior that is rare among fish. Keisuke Ogimoto, a staff member at Kaikyokan aquarium, led the team that examined 51 specimens and discovered that pufferfish use a ring-shaped muscle around the eye to create this distinctive movement.
The muscle draws the surrounding skin inward toward the center of the eye, producing the wink-like appearance. The researchers believe that this behavior evolved from existing muscles used to return the body to its normal shape after inflation, which were repurposed to protect the eyes. Although eye-closing behavior in pufferfish has a different evolutionary origin from other vertebrates, it serves the same function of safeguarding their eyes.
The team's findings were published in the Journal of Morphology, and Ogimoto's team plans to continue studying the eye-closing mechanisms of other species in the Tetraodontiformes order, including ocean sunfish.
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