Annoyed octopus filmed punching fish

2 months ago
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What’s worse than being punched? Being punched eight times, which is why you don’t pick a fight with an octopus.

Fish, despite hanging round in a school all day, have seemingly failed to learn this lesson, leading to bizarre footage being captured by researchers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. The team, after studying marine life in the Red Sea off the coast of Israel, have theorized that an octopus will ‘recruit’ fish to help with hunting expeditions, and punch the fish when they don’t follow orders, or aren’t pulling their weight. It’s thought that this punching move is intended to knock the fish to the edge of the group, as a kind of ‘demotion.’ Also, the octopus probably finds it a bit funny.

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