Robotic Cuttlefish Camera Catches a Desperate Escape From a Seal

Wildlife filmmaking pioneer John Downer built a swimming robotic spy camera that closely resembles a cuttlefish, one of nature’s best camouflagers, enabling the capture of incredible close-up underwater footage of a wild seal attack.

The “Spy Cuttlefish” camera was built for the nature series, Spy in the Ocean, and Downer shared new footage of the cuttlefish camera on his YouTube channel, John Downer Productions.

The cuttlefish camera is one of many spy cameras that Downer has built that look and move like real-life animals. These remote control spy cameras can get up close and personal to many animals, and help filmmakers capture footage that would be too dangerous or difficult for a human operator. Sometimes Downer even makes cameras that look like non-animal objects, like a rolling spy camera that looks like a pile of dung.

In the case of the cuttlefish camera, Downer’s creation not only looks like a cuttlefish, but it also features the mollusc’s flexible “skin” and tentacles.

As the Spy Cuttlefish “swam” through the waters of New Zealand, New Zealand Fur Seals prowled, hunting for real cuttlefish to eat. The Spy Cuttlefish camera captured incredible footage of cuttlefish hiding, using remarkable camouflage techniques, and even escaping the deadly grasp of a seal using ink and evasion.

This incredible footage of seals predating cuttlefish would have proven exceptionally challenging, if not impossible, to capture using any other camera aside from a convincing Spy Cuttlefish. It is yet another example of John Downer Productions being able to provide scientists and viewers exciting, novel looks at nature’s most incredible moments.

Downer’s spy cameras are so realistic that langur monkeys even grieved over a “lifeless” robot monkey camera after it broke following a fall.

A robot Spy Gorilla camera also proved convincing, even prompting a young silverback gorilla to try to play with it.

Beyond his realistic underwater and terrestrial spy cameras, Downer also made headlines way back in 2012 with tiny cameras mounted to birds that captured a true birds-eye view of the world. Downer has been making animal spy cameras for natural history filmmaking programs for over 30 years.


Image credits: John Downer Productions