Long held notions of the universally asocial octopus are being challenged due to the identification of high-density and interacting octopus populations in Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the deep sea. This study experimentally assessed the social tolerance and presence of potential prey items of Caribbean reef octopus, Octopus briareus, in a tropical marine lake (25°21′40″N, 76°30′40″W) on the island of Eleuthera, The Bahamas, by deploying artificial dens in multi-den groups or ‘units’ in the months of May and June 2019. Fifteen octopus were observed occupying dens (n = 100), resulting in 13 den units being occupied (n = 40). Two examples of adjacent occupation within a single den unit were identified but with zero examples of cohabitation/den sharing. Ecological models showed den and den unit occupation was predicted to increase with depth and differ between sites. Octopus also displayed no preference for isolated or communal units but preferred isolated dens over dens adjacent to others. Additionally, 47 % of occupied dens contained bivalve or crustacean items with no epifauna on their interior surface. The lack of epifauna suggests that these items have been recently ‘cleaned’ by occupying octopus and so represent likely prey. This study presents evidence of possible antisocial den use by O. briareus, a modification of the default ‘asocial’ ignoring of conspecifics typically attributed to octopus. This is likely in response to the high population density and may imply behavioural plasticity, making this system appropriate for further scrutiny as a research location on the influence of large, insular environments on marine species.

由于在澳大利亚，印度尼西亚，日本和深海发现了高密度和相互作用的章鱼种群，因此普遍存在的社会章鱼概念受到了挑战。这项研究实验评估了社会宽容和加勒比礁章鱼的潜在猎物的存在，八达通布里阿柔斯，在热带海洋的湖泊（25°21'40“N，76°30'40”W）上的伊柳塞拉岛，在中巴哈马，在2019年5月和6月，通过在多个巢穴组或“单位”中部署人造巢穴。观察到15个章鱼占领了巢穴（n = 100），导致有13个巢穴单元被占领（n= 40）。确定了单个巢穴单元中相邻职业的两个示例，但同居/巢穴共享的示例为零。生态模型表明，窝点和窝单元的占有率预计会随着深度的增加而增加，并且在站点之间会有所不同。章鱼也没有显示对偏僻或公共单位的偏爱，但是相对于与其他相邻的巢穴，偏爱偏僻的巢穴。此外，47％的被占用的巢穴内含双壳类或甲壳类动物，其内表面没有动物。缺乏动物粪便表明这些物品最近已被章鱼“清洁”过，因此可能是猎物。这项研究提供了O. briareus可能使用反社会巢穴的证据，默认默认“社交”的一种修改，忽略了通常归因于章鱼的种。这可能是由于人口密度高而引起的，并且可能暗示着行为可塑性，这使得该系统适合作为进一步研究的场所，作为对大的，孤立的环境对海洋物种影响的研究场所。