Cannibalistic attack by Octopus vulgaris in the wild: behaviour of predator and prey

Jorge Hernández-Urcera, Miguel Cabanellas-Reboredo, Manuel E Garci, Jason Buchheim, Shane Gross, Angel Guerra, David Scheel, 2019. Cannibalistic attack by Octopus vulgaris in the wild: behaviour of predator and prey. Journal of Molluscan Studies, eyz019, https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyz019.

Abstract: Cannibalism refers to consuming a conspecific and is common in many taxa. In addition to conferring advantages for a predator’s growth, reproductive efficiency and survival (e.g. elimination of future competitors, ready supply of high-quality nutrition and of optimal proportions of vitamins, minerals and amino acid), cannibalism is an important link between individual and population-level processes (Claessen et al., 2002). Based primarily on the study of stomach contents, Ibañez and Keyl (2010) have shown that cannibalism is widespread in cephalopods. Cannibalism thus potentially may be an important component of natural mortality (Claessen, De Roos and Persson, 2004), and natural...

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