Deceptive Cephalopods

Sepia smithi. Rickard Zerpe, via Wikimedia Commons.

Many animals use deception to get what they want, but only a few creatures engage in tactical deception: They adapt their tricks depending on their goal or audience. Tactical deception involves some sophisticated cognition, and research on the phenomenon often focuses on primates or brainy birds like corvids. Recently, scientists suggested that a different group of animals may be ideal for the study of tactical deception: cephalopods like octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Do Octopuses Mean to Deceive?