Diver shot an incredible footage of two octopuses fighting. The brawl lasts for almost a minute before the larger specimen overpowers its rival, killing it with a bite from its fearsome beak before dragging its lifeless corpse away into the darkness.

6 days old, already more than 8000 views on youtube !

is it cannibalism ?

Many sources talk about cannibalism. The dailystar use for example the title: “INCREDIBLE footage shot by a scuba diver shows the moment an octopus killed and ate its rival during an underwater fight to the death”.

To me, the video is not crystal clear: the larger octopus definitely uses its beak to administer the final blow, but after that it seems more likely that its transports the dead corpse. If you watch closely, the corpse is located at the tips of the tentacles, not inside the octopus’ mantle. So not cannibalism.

BUT, studies show that octopus vulgaris occasionally eat each other. As Spanish researchers report:

In [most] cases, the predator octopus was much bigger […]. Once captured and dead, the prey was transported to the den which in turn was plugged with stones of different sizes. The predator began to eat its victim by the tips of the arms.

So even if we didn’t witness actual cannibalism, the act could have happened afterwards.

Is cannibalism disgusting/pure barbarism ?

In our case, I would definitely say no. It is actually very intelligent and down-the-earth. Indeed: 1) the other octopus is already dead anyway, 2) octopuses are higher per-gram in protein than mussels, 3) opening mussels and capturing other small preys is tricky and energy consuming. 

So it seems logical not to let the corpse drift on the floor for someone else to eat, but to eat it oneself. Right ?