When octopuses and fish hunt in groups in the Red Sea, the leadership roles are more dynamic than researchers knew — as are some ways the animals enforce cooperation.
Octopuses and fish hunt in groups, and octopuses have been observed striking fish who try to freeload.The Red Sea, sandwiched between northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, is teeming with life, including octopuses and more than a thousand species of fish.“Anything that is smaller than them and can fit their mouth, they’re going to try to eat,” says, a behavioral biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany.
“So the octopus would just be doing its thing, hunting by itself,” he explains. “And the fish would be preying on the prey that the octopus was flushing out, purely taking advantage.” After a month of diving, Sampaio successfully managed to record three or four hours of hunting of these mixed-species groups.
Feeding is first come, first serve, but with the hunting happening over and over again, eventually all the group members get to eat. Sampaio says the result likely helps the fish, “because they gain access to prey that would be otherwise unattainable because they cannot reach prey that is in crevices.” It's prey that the octopus can easily drive out. This teamwork appears good for the octopus, which feeds more than it would on its own and with much less effort.
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