Most sociable octopus

The world's most gregarious octopus is the larger Pacific striped octopus. Whereas other octopus species are solitary by nature, this species forms groups or associations of up to 40 individuals. Moreover, whereas other octopuses meet only to mate, pairs of this Central American species stay together and even co-habit the same den. Yet despite such distinctive behaviour, this remarkable species, known only from a few areas off the coast of Nicaragua, has yet to be formally described by science, so currently it has no zoological binomial ("Latin") name.

This species' unique social behaviour was first recorded back in the early 1970s in a detailed account by octopus researcher Aradio Rodaniche, but the account was never published. Consequently, its information remained unknown until as recently as 2013, when, following a separate study that confirmed Rodaniche's findings, San Francisco Bay Area scientists Drs Roy Caldwell and Richard Ross publicly announced their discoveries.