Individuals of the small-striped Pacific octopus can be identified by a unique pattern on the skin. An article about it was published on Plos One.
The octopus chierchiae is a small octopus that lives on the central Pacific coast of the Americas, mostly in Central America, but sometimes as far as California. Many details about his life and role in ecology are still unknown. Long-term observations are required to fill this gap and it is strongly recommended that such sensitive animals not be removed from the water for examination.
Benjamin Liu and his colleagues concluded after photographing the physical development of 25 octopuses after hatching: chierchiae Individually unique strip configurations are created that remain constant throughout their lifetime. In addition, the authors showed that using photographs of captive animals, untrained volunteers could accurately determine whether a pair of images represented the same octopus or two different octopuses.
These results show that laboratory-grown individuals can be identified from photographs taken at different periods of their lives, and wild individuals can be recognized and observed in long-term field studies. Thus, the problem of diagnosing an octopus in the sea without making physical contact will be solved.