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We all know what a pack of lions hunting together looks like, but a fish and an eel make for rather odd bedfellows. One such revelation was even featured in Blue Planet II, when cameraman Alex Vail went searching for grouper-moray interactions, but was astounded to instead find grouper fish cooperatively hunting with octopus: reminding us that marine life still holds so many secrets we have yet to uncover. Since then, footage of this unlikely partnership has been shared widely among scientists across the globe – leading to further discoveries on cross-species cooperation between groupers and other underwater predators. And even more astonishing, with other species: grouper fish and giant moray eels work together to flush out prey! This inter-species relationship was first discovered by Redouan Bshary, a researcher from Switzerland who was studying cleaner wrasses in the coral reefs of the Red Sea, and published in 2006. Pretty impressive when you consider the degree of self-awareness needed to conduct such organised hunts.īut what about fish? Do they possess the cognitive processes necessary for such complex co-ordination? Well, apparently so. Every group member must know their role and anticipate the actions of their teammates. The division of labour in a cooperative hunting context requires impressive social organisation skills, and we see it among well-known social predators like lions, chimpanzees, hyaenas, grey wolves and African wild dogs. Cooperative hunting is a form of this, and is an ongoing source of fascination for researchers.

Mutualism is the most common symbiosis, where both or all species benefit and is often done by exchanging skill sets.

You might even remember exciting renditions of terrestrial mammalian carnivores forming inter-species hunting groups, like the fabled tales of wolf and hyena coalition, whereby both species set aside the usual enmity to shake down prey together in the middle east. In short, interactions whereby one species services another for the promise of a meal. For most of us, when we think of mutualistic inter-species relationships we conjure images of remora fish hitchhiking on sharks, oxpecker birds stationed atop hippos or perhaps bees buzzing between flowers. Symbiotic relationships are a fascinating occurrence in the animal kingdom, and can be a sight to behold in species deemed the most unlikely of allies.