Posted on 10/09/2005 6:56:17 PM PDT by badpacifist
Watch an octopus reveal a startling ability. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_players_blue/shark_hi.html A new age of ocean exploration is lifting the veil of mystery shrouding a creature of legend -- the octopus. Dreaded by sailors through the ages, this other-worldly looking denizen of the seas is surrendering the astonishing secrets that have brought it almost mythical status
I thought this thread was about Stainman and The Beast.
I thought it was about Karl Rove and the NY Times.
kewl!! BTTT!!
Holy cow, I wasn't expecting that!
Thanks for posting!
Very kewl.
Very kewl.
bump
I guess he decided he wasn't going to live a fearful life hiding among the rocks; he went on the offense and eliminated his enemies one by one.
Cool. Thanks for sharing.
I remember seeing something about a marine biology lab that kept having fish disappear from one of the tanks. So, they set up a video camera at night and caught the thief on tape. It was an octopus climbing out of its tank, crawling across the room and climbing into the fish tank. It would catch and eat a fish and go back to its own tank before the biologists arrived in the morning. Just amazing. I saw another (might have been the same one) where it would squeeze through a tube to get through a maze. Basically, if its beak would fit, the whole thing would.
They better watch out for those French and Russian octopi. They won't like this....
I saw that, too! There are also a few cool videos on the Internet demonstrating how they can change color and camouflage themselves. I wanted to own one for a while, so read up on them. Similar stories on the Internet about owners having their octopus crawling out of one tank and getting into another looking for food. They can learn, such as figuring out how to unscrew a jar and they like attention and affection. They only live about 1-2 years, though so I lost interest in having one.
I used to be really involved in saltwater aquaria, and I've heard a few great stories about pet octopi. One involved an octopus that lived in a tank with a hinged lid that had a sliding lock on it. The octopus liked to squeeze one of his tentacles out from under the lid, unlock it, and climb out to sit on the corner of the tank. Its owner would come into the room and hear a splash, then find the tank lid open (but the octopus had slithered back into the water by then). She decided to "spy on it", and discovered its ability to get out of the tank. She approached it when it was out of the water fully, and it jumped back in its tank and hid in its cave. She hid and watched it again, and it reached back out, closed the lid, and locked itself back into the tank. She said she had the distinct impression it was sulking the whole time, too.
Another story I heard was about an octopus named "Fugly", who had a toy spatula. He just loved to sit in his tank and wave the spatula about with his various tentacles. His owner had a friend "tank-sit" while he went on vacation. This friend and a couple of others decided, while drinking, that it would be really funny to take the spatula away from Fugly to see if he got upset. Unfortunately they forgot to give it back to him, and left it on the kitchen counter. (Fugly's tank was also in the kitchen.) When the owner got home, he was dismayed to find Fugly stretched out on the kitchen floor, with one tentacle extended toward the cabinet that held up the counter where his spatula rested. R.I.P., Fugly!
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