This Octopus is Romantic with Others and Nicely Asks to Eat Its Prey

A certain octopus may have a bit of a strange romantic life. Not only is the creature gregarious, but it seems almost polite with its prey. The creature actually subtly taps its prey on the shoulder and then startles it into its arms, embracing it.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Roy Caldwell, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Octopuses typically pounce on their prey or poke around in holes until they find something. When this octopus sees a shrimp at a distance, it compresses itself and creeps up, extends an arm up and over the shrimp, touches it on the far side and either catches it or scares it into its other arms."

The octopus is named the larger Pacific striped octopus. It's not only "friendly" toward its prey, though. It's also one of the most gregarious of known octopuses. While most octopus species are solitary, these have been seen in groups of up to 40 off the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua and Panama.

In addition, while many male octopuses share sperm with females at arm's length, ready to flee if the female should get aggressive or hungry, mating pairs of this species actually can cohabit in the same cavity for a few days while mating. There's little indication of escalated aggression, and mating pairs will even share meals.

The strange behaviors seen in this particular octopus is actually a testament to how little we know about most octopuses. While their behavior and neurobiology have been studied, most research is just based on observations of just a handful of the more than 300 octopus species worldwide.

"Personally observing and recording the incredibly unique cohabitation, hunting and mating behaviors of this fascinating octopus was beyond exciting-almost like watching cryptozoology turn into real-life zoology," said Richard Ross, one of the researchers. "It reminds us how much we still have to learn about the mysterious world of cephalopods."

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

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