Caribbean Reef Octopus

Photo: Russell Brown · CC BY-NC

Several individuals inhabit permanent dens in the cave's limestone walls, identifiable by the shells and rubble piles outside each den entrance. They hunt at night along the cave margins, using sophisticated colour-change camouflage to stalk crabs and molluscs across the textured rock. Their dens are long-term home sites — the same crevices are typically occupied by successive individuals as territories are inherited when a resident dies.