We tested the feasibility of conducting three standard behavioural tests modified from laboratory experiments with Octopus vulgaris in its natural habitat. Twenty wild octopuses from around the island of Capri (Mediterranean Sea) were filmed as two novel objects (a piece of white plastic and an identical piece of black plastic), an artificial prey item (a realistic rubber crab lure) and a conspecific (simulated by reflection in a mirror) were presented by experimenters on SCUBA. All of the objects elicited responses from at least 20% of the octopuses, particularly the artificial crab (50% made contact). This rate of engagement with objects (≤50%) is much lower than seen in analogous laboratory experiments (>78%). However, among those that did respond to an object, latencies to touch were in the same range as those observed in the laboratory. This demonstrates the feasibility of conducting simple behavioural assays with O. vulgaris in the field, opening the door to a more systematic approach to behavioural study of octopuses in the wild. Such studies will, however, require larger sample sizes than laboratory experiments in order to compensate for lower engagement rates.

中文翻译：

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普通八达通对野外实验刺激反应的初步调查

我们测试了在自然栖息地用普通章鱼进行实验室实验修改的三项标准行为测试的可行性。来自卡普里岛（地中海）周围的 20 只野生章鱼被拍摄为两个新物体（一块白色塑料和一块相同的黑色塑料）、一个人造猎物（一个逼真的橡胶蟹诱饵）和一个同种（模拟通过镜子反射）由 SCUBA 上的实验者展示。所有的物体都引起了至少 20% 的章鱼的反应，尤其是人造螃蟹（50% 的章鱼发生了接触）。这种与物体的接触率 (≤50%) 远低于类似的实验室实验 (>78%)。然而，在那些对物体有反应的人中，触摸延迟与实验室观察到的在同一范围内。这证明了在田间用 O. vulgaris 进行简单行为分析的可行性，为更系统地研究野生章鱼的行为打开了大门。然而，此类研究将需要比实验室实验更大的样本量，以弥补较低的参与率。