More Octopus Smarts

Longtime readers of vX know I’m fascinated by octopuses (here, here and here).

Here’s a piece by Sy Montgomery from Orion Magazine.

… Some octopuses did not like being removed from their tanks. They would hide. They would squeeze into a corner where they couldn’t be pried out. They would hold on to some object with their arms and not let go.

Some would let themselves be captured, only to use the net as a trampoline. They’d leap off the mesh and onto the floor—and then run for it. Yes, run. “You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth, like you were chasing a cat,” Warburton said. “It’s so weird!”

Octopuses in captivity actually escape their watery enclosures with alarming frequency. While on the move, they have been discovered on carpets, along bookshelves, in a teapot, and inside the aquarium tanks of other fish—upon whom they have usually been dining.

When visiting the Downtown Aquarium in Denver about 10 years ago, we were told by a handler that they had trouble with a large octopus in the lobby: they knew it was leaving its tank at night, presumably to dine on other exhibits, because it was leaving a trail of water on the floor. But, it was always in its own exhibit in the morning, and it took them a few months to figure out how to keep it contained in there.

Via Kottke.

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Comments

[jim`]

Ever played with one? You get they impression they are spooky smart!

[Dave Tufte]

I have not. When you live in the high desert that's not an opportunity you get.