The Tricky Trumpetfish

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Trumpetfish like to prey on damselfish and shrimp in coral reefs and seagrass beds, but with 20-inch-long bodies and conspicuously large snouts, they need tricks to hide from their prey. They can change colors to blend into their surroundings or hang vertically alongside soft coral and dart down to suck prey into their gaping mouths. And, as many divers have seen, they swim close alongside another fish, apparently using that body for a shield to ambush prey.

In a study published in Current Biology at the beginning of August, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Cambridge set out with colleagues to see whether they could prove that trumpetfish were genuinely doing something much like that used by duck hunters of old....

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