In the waters of the Red Sea, #fish and #octopuses are forming an unlikely alliance:
💥They’re joining forces to track down prey, establishing a hunting operation that’s potentially more effective than either creature working alone.
With the octopus leading the charge, fish scout for hidden prey and signal where to capture a smaller fish or mollusk.
🔥But if freeloading fish are hovering around, looking to benefit from the hunt without contributing, the octopus punches them away, according to new research.
⭐️“The octopus basically works as the decider of the group,” Eduardo Sampaio, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and lead author of the study, tells Nature News’ Helena Kudiabor.
The study, published on Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution, brought a new type of collective behavior to light. Octopuses, often thought of as solitary creatures, led a
... Show more...In the waters of the Red Sea, #fish and #octopuses are forming an unlikely alliance:
💥They’re joining forces to track down prey, establishing a hunting operation that’s potentially more effective than either creature working alone.
With the octopus leading the charge, fish scout for hidden prey and signal where to capture a smaller fish or mollusk.
🔥But if freeloading fish are hovering around, looking to benefit from the hunt without contributing, the octopus punches them away, according to new research.
⭐️“The octopus basically works as the decider of the group,” Eduardo Sampaio, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and lead author of the study, tells Nature News’ Helena Kudiabor.
The study, published on Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution, brought a new type of collective behavior to light. Octopuses, often thought of as solitary creatures, led a group of various species of fish and discerned which ones were and weren’t helping
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-octopuses-team-up-with-fish-to-hunt-and-punch-those-that-dont-contribute-180985134/