Playtime for Cephalopods: Understanding the Significance of Play Behavior in Octopus bimaculoides.

Play is considered to be an essential part of development that supports learning, memory, and the development of flexible behavioral strategies. An increasing amount of non-mammalian species have been discovered to engage in play behavior, but there has been little research into play behavior in cephalopods specifically. Here we studied play behavior of wild-caught, laboratory-housed California Two-Spot Octopuses, Octopus bimaculoides . The behavior observed in these animals is consistent with established criteria of play behavior in animals. The evidence of play in O. bimaculoides provides further insight into the evolutionary development of play behavior as a whole, the characteristics of play in an under-studied species, and also has the potential to be used as a factor in determining the welfare state of octopuses to improve their management in captivity.