Inkfish and fish hunt together: watch teamwork under water
Inkfish and fish hunt together: watch teamwork under water
Usually hunt octopuses alone, but shots of divers have shown that they can work with fish to find their next meal. The videos published in the Nature Ecology & Evolution magazine 1 Maximize hunting expeditions.
"The octopus basically acts as decision-makers in the group," says co-author Eduardo Sampaio, a behavioral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Conduct Research in Constance, Germany. "There are definitely signs that there is a certain cognition."
Although Octopuses were previously observed together with fish, the relationship between the species was not always clear. Sampaio and his colleagues used several synchronized cameras to collect 120 hours of film material while diving in the Red Sea. They documented 13 cases of inter -specific group hunts in which a large blue octopus (Octopus Cyanea) worked with various fish species to find and catch smaller fish and molluscs.
Each of these scenes indicated complex group dynamics, in which different types of different roles. For example, spikes (Parupeneus Spp.), For example, tended to encourage fish from other species, go forward and explore new environments, while the octopuses were more convincing of lingering in a specific location. "The other fish offer several options, and then the octopus decides which it wants to choose," says Sampaio. "There is this element divided guidance."
The octopuses also seemed to adapt to different situations and react to it. In some groups, certain fish species-especially black top groupers (Epinephelus fasciatus)-were opportunistic and hung up to the group without helping to find food. In some of these cases, the Octopuses "beat" these opportunists with their tentacles, which was apparently an attempt to punish them or to make them leave the group. Sampaio says that the team is interested in examining whether octopuses can recognize individual fish that have previously shown opportunistic behavior.
The work is "really fascinating" and helps researchers to understand "what makes groups of completely different ways to stay together," says Hannah Macgregor, a behavioral researcher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Further studies are necessary to research how the group dynamics differ between different environments, it adds.
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Sampaio, E. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-02525-2 (2024).