The results of a new study show that some octopuses have a richer social life than previously thought.
Video material shows how octopuses of the species octopus cyanea move together with groups of fish in search of prey. The results of the study, as published in the journal Natureshows that the admittedly intelligent species organizes the hunting team’s decision-making, making decisions about which prey to pursue.
Among other things, the researchers could see how the octopuses boxed against other fish to get them to focus on the task at hand and continue to contribute to the collective hunt.
“We are much closer than we thought”
Previously, scientists believed that octopuses avoid other individuals of their species and that they hunt by moving alone in camouflage along the seabed. The new discovery indicates that at least one species of squid possesses an intelligence previously thought to exist only in vertebrates.
– I think that the social, or at least that the social learning is much more deeply rooted in evolution than we first thought, says Eduardo Sampaio, who led the study, to NBC News.
– We are not very different from these animals. In terms of the perception of their surroundings, they are much closer to us than we thought, he adds.
Boxes fish that do not cooperate
To get a picture of the octopuses’ methods, the researchers dived for a month in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel and followed a total of thirteen octopuses for 120 hours with several cameras. The research group observed the octopuses on thirteen hunting occasions and could see how they worked in collectives with between two and ten other fish.
The hunting teams consisted of several different species of fish and although the octopuses were not leaders in the groups, the researchers could see how they boxed against the other fish as if to give them orders.
– Those who are mainly beaten are the individuals who try to exploit the group the most and do not help to look for prey, explains Eduardo Sampaio.
The researchers believe that the fishermen can benefit from the squid’s ability to scrape food out of crevices in reefs and the seabed, while the squid in turn can benefit from the fishermen’s ability to find prey.
Eduardo Sampaio says that in the study they could see that a certain species of fish was the one that explored the surroundings and found prey, while the octopus was the group’s decision maker. The individual in the group who then managed to catch the prey was also the one who got to eat.
Whether the collective hunt is innate or something the octopuses learn over time is not entirely clear. Eduardo Sampaio leans towards the latter.
– The smaller octopuses seem to have more difficulty cooperating with the octopuses than the larger ones, he explains.