Natures wonders: different species cooperate (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, May 16, 2021, 18:42 (1070 days ago) @ David Turell

A tale stating with a grouper and an octopus:

http://oceans.nautil.us/article/665/in-the-partnership-of-octopus-and-fish-a-marvelous-...

"The octopus swims to the boulder’s far side and makes a barrier with tentacles now spread flat and turned white. The grouper dives into the hollow, looking for fish whose escape routes have been blocked. Never mind the 500-million-year wide taxonomic gulf that separates them. Hunger, opportunity, and smarts cross that divide easily, hinting at adaptations that could help these unlikely partners navigate lean years ahead and providing an interspecies union to tickle human imaginations.

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"The animals were not merely taking advantage of the other’s activities, as happens when fish follow turtles across the seafloor, snapping up critters scattered by their sediment-disturbing foraging. They actively communicated with one another

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"As they recount in a study published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology, the researchers even started to decipher some of the signals. When octopuses preceded the hunt with what Bayley and Rose called a “pounce” gesture, engulfing corals with their mantle and turning white, it was their fish partners who ate. When instead octopuses made a “groping” gesture, inserting tentacles into a crack or crevice, it was their turn to dine. “It was very much a give-and-take scenario,” Bayley said. Other gestures and skin-pattern signals remain uninterpreted.

"Asked to review the footage, Culum Brown, a behavioral ecologist at Maquarie University who specializes in fish intelligence, said “they are clearly communicating with one another.” Brown, who agrees that the hunts are planned, is curious how about how they’re initiated. Do octopuses give the go-ahead? Or fish? And how are partners chosen? Brown pointed to research on groupers cooperating with moray eels to hunt. Those fish select the most competent eels, demonstrating a collaborative sophistication once thought limited to humans and certain primates. He also noted that, while octopuses seemed to take the lead, the collaborations seen by Bayley and Rose demand quite a bit of intelligence from the fish as well.

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"Another fascinating question, he said, is how knowledge spreads of hunting strategies and mutually-understood signals. Perhaps each participating octopus and fish works it out for themselves, through trial and error—or perhaps, following an initial breakthrough, knowledge spreads by observation or even active teaching. That would make it a cultural adaptation, a matter of accumulating knowledge passed between generations, an example of species surviving in a fast-changing world not because of some fortunate genetic mutation but because they are learning. This also suggests a potentially key role for grouper. Unlike day octopuses, who reach a ripe old age at 15 months, brown-marbled and peacock grouper can easily live 40 years or longer. They may be a living library for their short-lived partners." (my bold)

Comment: no surprise. they won't attack each other so why not react normally and hunt by instinct with some help. Each knows what to do within their own limits of instinct. It is not at the level of our cooperation with each other but very like the way w e cooperate with our dogs.