Octopuses prefer to use different tentacles for different tasks

Octopuses prefer to use certain tentacles for certain tasks, reports The Guardian , which relays the results of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports .

The scientists analyzed 25 one-minute video clips of 25 wild octopuses from three species. These videos were filmed between 2007 and 2015 at six locations, from Vigo in Spain to the Cayman Islands. “They identified 15 different octopus behaviors and 12 different tentacle actions, some of which—such as crawling or parachuting—required more tentacle actions than others, such as swimming backward,” the British newspaper explains.

The researchers found that all eight of the octopuses' tentacles were capable of all actions and deformations. They also found that the cephalopods preferred to use their front arms over their back arms, "with a split of 61% to 39% respectively when all 12 actions were considered together," notes The Guardian . However, they did not find a preference for using the right or left tentacles.

“Overall, we found that for most actions, octopuses used their anterior tentacles more often than their posterior tentacles,” said study co-author Kendra Buresch, based at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, USA, noting some exceptions. “Octopuses can be very flexible and adaptable in many different environments and tasks.”