ABSTRACT Inter-specific hunting associations can occur across a range of marine species to facilitate prey capture through co-operative behaviour. Here we describe multiple transient cross-phyla associations between day octopus (Octopus cyanea) and three fish species, including peacock grouper (Cephalopholis argus), brown-marbled grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus), and gold-saddle goatfish (Parupeneus cyclostomus), in the isolated reef system of the Chagos archipelago. Observations of such hunting associations are rare, and no similar observations have been recorded for this region. The remoteness of this study site may provide some explanation for these multiple sightings, allowing natural behaviours to occur undisturbed. However, given no previous sightings of such behaviour, the limitation of available food resources following two recent mass coral mortality episodes, may have necessitated the formation of these rare/novel hunting interactions. Intensified prey scarcity and increasingly degraded habitat structure following more frequent disturbance events may therefore lead to such indirect environmentally mediated behavioural responses becoming increasingly prevalent in reef-dwelling species.

中文翻译：

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偏远印度洋珊瑚礁系统中的多物种合作狩猎行为

摘要 多种海洋物种之间可能会发生种间狩猎协会，以通过合作行为促进猎物捕获。在这里，我们描述了日间章鱼 (Octopus cyanea) 和三种鱼类之间的多个瞬时跨门关联，包括孔雀石斑鱼 (Cephalopholis argus)、棕色大理石石斑鱼 (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) 和金鞍山山羊鱼 (Parupeneus cyclostomus)。查戈斯群岛的孤立珊瑚礁系统。对此类狩猎协会的观察很少，该地区也没有类似的观察记录。该研究地点的偏远可能为这些多次目击提供了一些解释，允许自然行为不受干扰地发生。然而，鉴于之前没有发现此类行为，在最近两次大规模珊瑚死亡事件之后，可用食物资源有限，可能需要形成这些罕见/新颖的狩猎互动。因此，在更频繁的干扰事件之后，猎物稀缺加剧和栖息地结构日益退化可能导致这种间接环境介导的行为反应在珊瑚礁物种中变得越来越普遍。