Nature contains many examples of animals working together, but things doesn’t always go smoothly. Over the last few years, scientists have watched several octopuses try and hunt with fish, get annoyed, and punch them.
The big blue octopus (which isn’t actually blue) will sometimes team up with fish to catch prey. The octopus hunts through rocks and coral while some fish search the seafloor and others guard the surrounding water.
When they all do their job, this can be an excellent strategy. When they don’t, tentacles start flying.
Researchers who filmed these events have several ideas of why octopuses might attack their fellow hunters. Sometimes the fish won’t actually be helping, just waiting to steal whatever they can, so the octopus tries to get rid of them. Other times, the punch might be to move a fish out of the way, so the octopus has a better chance of grabbing food for itself.
Sometimes, however, there’s no obvious cause – maybe the octopus is just angry?
This article was published in Issue 47 of Double Helix magazine (https://www.csiro.au/en/Education/Double-Helix). Copyright for this article is held by CSIRO.
Lachlan Writes Science 