This week, biologists tracked down a mysterious group of orcas near Chile; Hubble spotted a black hole jet that causes stars along its trajectory to erupt; and researchers explained mysterious craters that began appearing in Siberian permafrost in the 2010s. But you’re probably here for cheese, cosmology and octopuses, so here you go:
biologists tracked down a mysterious group of orcas near Chile; Hubble spotted a black hole jet that causes stars along its trajectory to erupt; and researchers explained mysterious craters that began appearing in Siberian permafrost in the 2010s. But you’re probably here for cheese, cosmology and octopuses, so here you go:
Octopuses tend to be solitary creatures, like Boo Radley, living and hunting alone before finally mating, developing a weird Alzheimer’s-like brain deterioration and then dying. But sometimes, they interact socially and even cooperatively in interspecies networks, hunting with groups of fish.
Researchers at the University of Konstanz conducted an underwater field observation in which they used three-dimensional, field-based tracking and collected 100 hours of footage of Octopus cyanea individuals in hunting collaboratives with groups of multiple fish species, finding hidden mechanisms of leadership and complex social dynamics.
Groups of fish scouting ahead comprised an extended sensory network for the octopus, which was better able to locate and identify prey. In all the instances they observed, the octopus was the de facto leader of the group, eating prey before the fish and meting out corporal punishment against insufficiently compliant fish subordinates.
