By: Nathalie Benshmuel

Hi! My name is Nathalie Benshmuel and I am studying Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, and Documentary at USC. This summer, I’ve been working with the Mehta Lab to understand how California moray eels hunt the Verrill’s two spotted octopus. Since both animals are abundant predators in Catalina’s rocky reefs, how they interact with each other affects how they interact with other species in their ecosystem. Understanding the magnitude of aggressive behaviors is important because if they hurt each other, it might affect their ability to hunt in the future. Further, the elusive nature of both morays and octopuses makes field observations of their behavior challenging. Since morays primarily hunt in crevices at night, limited research describes the specific mechanisms that allow morays to evade octopus defense and successfully consume them as prey.

Through video analysis of 24 trials involving octopuses and morays collected from around Catalina, I have been researching two main questions. Since male octopuses have a specialized reproductive arm (R3) called a hectocotylus they must protect in order to successfully reproduce, they potentially employ different defense mechanisms when under attack.

A view of an octopus from top and bottom, with arms numbered: L1 through L4 for the left arms, and R1 through R4 for the right arms.

I’m curious as to how this factor affects moray attack behavior. Therefore, I am analyzing whether or not California morays have specific strategies for hunting different sexs of the two-spotted octopus. I predict that morays do employ different behaviors as a response to the variation in octopus defense mechanisms caused by differences in their reproductive anatomy.

Also, octopuses in general are notorious for inking when they are trying to evade a predator. So I am also interested in how octopus inkings affect moray attack behavior. I hypothesize that morays are more likely to strike an octopus again after they have been inked because of the scent trail left by the pheromones in their mucus; however, I predict that morays will take longer to recover from an inking before they strike again than those that were not inked, since the ink coats their gills, sort of disorients them, and makes it harder for the morays to locate the octopus.

Video still of an octopus moving away from an eel, and releasing ink.

I’m currently finishing the video analysis component of my research. The first step was to create a list of moray behaviors taken from past studies or my own observations and then I documented detailed characteristics of the behaviors exhibited in each video like duration, frequency and sequences, as well as qualities of inkings and strikes.

Video still of eel and octopus behavior.

Conducting this research virtually has been more seamless than expected. I’ve enjoyed the observational component especially, and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to pursue my passion during this crazy time. My mentor has not only guided me through the process of formulating a researchable hypothesis and collecting data, she has also equipped me with the tools I need to further my education into graduate school and fed my interest in animal behavior studies. Thank you to the Mehta Lab and the Wrigley Virtual Research Program for allowing me to be a part of this research!