WATCH: An octopus and fishes caught hunting together as a team!

Octopuses are often known for their solitary hunting habits, but recent footage from the Red Sea reveals a different story. Researchers have discovered that these intelligent sea creatures can join forces with fish to hunt more effectively, displaying surprising levels of collaboration and complex group dynamics. The findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, show how octopuses and fish play specific roles to boost their chances of catching prey.

Eduardo Sampaio, an animal behaviour researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, and his team captured over 120 hours of footage, documenting 13 instances of this remarkable behaviour. The videos show the big blue octopus (Octopus cyanea) working alongside different fish species, such as the blue goatfish and blacktip grouper, to locate and capture smaller fish and molluscs. “The octopus basically works as the decider of the group,” Sampaio explains. This suggests that octopuses possess a degree of cognition, actively making decisions for the group during the hunt.
The group dynamics observed were intriguing. Each species seemed to adopt a specific role. Goatfish, for example, often took the lead in encouraging other fish to explore new environments, while the octopus acted as a leader, deciding when and where the group should pause. “There’s this element of shared leadership,” says Sampaio. This cooperation among such different species offers a fascinating glimpse into how these animals manage to synchronise their efforts for mutual benefit.

However, the octopuses didn’t tolerate freeloaders. In some cases, certain fish species, especially blacktip groupers, acted as opportunists, attempting to take advantage of the group's hard work without contributing. To everyone’s surprise, the octopuses responded to this behaviour by ‘punching’ these opportunists with their tentacles, seemingly to punish them or chase them away.

The discovery sheds light on the complex social interactions and decision-making processes in the animal kingdom. “It’s really fascinating,” says Hannah MacGregor, an animal-behaviour researcher at the University of Cambridge. She emphasises that this behaviour provides valuable insight into why such different species might stick together for hunting. Future studies will aim to explore how these group dynamics vary across different environments, deepening our understanding of this extraordinary collaboration in the underwater world.