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The octopus knows
By nick g | December 15, 2009
I bet you don’t know that octopus remember you by touching a sucker to your skin? One touch and next time it’s “Hey, how’s the family? Two daughters, right? Must be, shoot, 8 and 11 by now? And the job? You still work at Arby’s? One-eighth Polish, right? And your brother once shot himself in the leg with a BB gun because he thought there was a spider crawling on him but it was really just a dust ball? Yeah, how ya been?”
Octopus also are strong enough to crush your skull and delicate enough to fit into the smallest of crevices. They change color. They’re fast. Some are deadly poisonous. They shoot ink. Now they’ve been filmed using tools.
The veined octopus in Bali has been documented as using coconut halves as hiding places. But they go through a considerable amount of work to get them. Finding them stuck in the mud, the octopus digs in underneath and blows out the mud inside of the upside-down shell with a high-powered jetstream of water from a valve on its head.
What the story doesn’t really say is this octopus does just what the acclaimed mimic octopus is famous for – imitate other creatures. At one point in the video it uses two halves to become a giant clam, later it is a hermit crab. It’s fairly obvious imitation, and the story doesn’t point it out.
In addition to using tools, this creature mimics other creatures depending on what would be most useful in the situation. It makes a snap fight-or-flight decision by choosing to hide or defend itself. That’s a lot of brains and the fastest use of it. Do you know, right now, what you would do if you were accosted by a sea lion 20 times your size? No, but the octopus does.
By the way, jeers to the BBC for writing such biased and opinionated articles. Tabloid journalism at best.
Topics: Music News |
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
coolest ocean dweller ever?
December 24th, 2009 at 2:14 am
“como un gran houdini…” love the comments. thanks!