Cephalopos Antics

[DWhatley]

... OR
Do Octopuses have Personality?

From time to time we see news stories highlighting humorous, destructive or unusual (to humans) behavior. For future reference, collect them here and be sure to reference the original link.

To start here is a research paper discussing the likelihood of an invertebrate having a "personality" and the responses to octopuses and their antics in the science community,
Interview with an Octopus Hannah Lauren Krakauer Master of Science Writing Paper Stanford University 2011 (PDF)

 

[DWhatley]

Otto the octopus wreaks havoc

The Telegraph - 11:03AM GMT 31 Oct 2008
An octopus has caused havoc in his aquarium by performing juggling tricks using his fellow occupants, smashing rocks against the glass and turning off the power by shortcircuiting a lamp.

The culprit of the smashed glass and broken lamp is two foot seven inch Otto. Photo: EUROPICS


Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.

The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.

A spokesman said: "It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.

"It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.

"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."



Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.
"Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants."

 

[DWhatley]

Octopus floods Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

Los Angeles times - February 27, 2009 -Bob Pool

The mollusk diassembles a valve at the top of her tank, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.


It's not surprising that with eight arms and inquisitive nature, the two-spotted octopus is pretty handy around its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

Still, those reporting for work Thursday at the popular beachfront attraction were caught by surprise when they were greeted by water lapping around the kelp forest display, the shark and ray tank and the rocky reef exhibit.

The guest of honor in the aquarium's Kids' Corner octopus tank had swum to the top of the enclosure and disassembled the recycling system's valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.

"It had grabbed the tube that pulls out the water and caused it to spray outside the tank," said aquarium education specialist Nick Fash. Judging by the size of the flood, Fash estimated that the water flowed for about 10 hours before the first staff member, Aaron Kind, showed up for work.

Kind issued an all-hands-on-deck call to summon co-workers to the pier with mops, water vacuums and fans. Even though the aquarium is built over the beach, it has no floor drain.

The tiny octopus, which is about the size of a human forearm when its appendages are extended, floated lazily in the water that remained in its tank.

It watched intently through glass walls and portholes as workers struggled to dry the place out in time for the day's first busload of schoolchildren to arrive on a 9:30 a.m. field trip.

Randi Parent, the aquarium's community outreach coordinator, said the only significant damage was to newly installed ecologically sensitive flooring in several offices. It consists of linseed-and-cork tiles that soaked up the seawater and squished beneath workers' feet the rest of the day.

The incident was reminiscent of a 1994 incident at San Pedro's Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in which an octopus named Octavia pulled a plastic pipe loose. That giant Pacific octopus died when all of the water in her tank drained out.

Since octopuses are considered by many to be the most intelligent invertebrate -- and to have good memories -- Fash said he jury-rigged his octopus tank piping with clamps and tape in hopes of thwarting any further mischief by its occupant. "She would need tools," he said of his octopus, which until now had no name.

"Some people are suggesting we call her 'Flo,' " he said.

Original TONMO post and discussion

 

[DWhatley]

Octopus floods Santa Monica Pier Aquarium


The mollusk diassembles a valve at the top of her tank, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.


Los Angeles Time - February 27, 2009 - Bob Pool

It's not surprising that with eight arms and inquisitive nature, the two-spotted octopus is pretty handy around its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.
Still, those reporting for work Thursday at the popular beachfront attraction were caught by surprise when they were greeted by water lapping around the kelp forest display, the shark and ray tank and the rocky reef exhibit.

The guest of honor in the aquarium's Kids' Corner octopus tank had swum to the top of the enclosure and disassembled the recycling system's valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.

"It had grabbed the tube that pulls out the water and caused it to spray outside the tank," said aquarium education specialist Nick Fash. Judging by the size of the flood, Fash estimated that the water flowed for about 10 hours before the first staff member, Aaron Kind, showed up for work.
Kind issued an all-hands-on-deck call to summon co-workers to the pier with mops, water vacuums and fans. Even though the aquarium is built over the beach, it has no floor drain.
The tiny octopus, which is about the size of a human forearm when its appendages are extended, floated lazily in the water that remained in its tank.
It watched intently through glass walls and portholes as workers struggled to dry the place out in time for the day's first busload of schoolchildren to arrive on a 9:30 a.m. field trip.
Randi Parent, the aquarium's community outreach coordinator, said the only significant damage was to newly installed ecologically sensitive flooring in several offices. It consists of linseed-and-cork tiles that soaked up the seawater and squished beneath workers' feet the rest of the day.
The incident was reminiscent of a 1994 incident at San Pedro's Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in which an octopus named Octavia pulled a plastic pipe loose. That giant Pacific octopus died when all of the water in her tank drained out.
Since octopuses are considered by many to be the most intelligent invertebrate -- and to have good memories -- Fash said he jury-rigged his octopus tank piping with clamps and tape in hopes of thwarting any further mischief by its occupant. "She would need tools," he said of his octopus, which until now had no name.
"Some people are suggesting we call her 'Flo,' " he said.

Link to original TONMO post and discussion

 

[DWhatley]

Paul the Bookie

There are multiple threads about the (in)famous octopus that successfully predicted most of the soccer World Cup series in 2010. Many of the articles are no longer on-line but NOVA has a brief paragraph and video that should remain available over time.


Thinking Like an Octopus
NOVA - Kate Becker July 19 2010

If you follow soccer or marine biology, you've probably heard about Paul, the octopus who correctly predicted the winners of the 2010 World Cup games by selecting tasty mussels from boxes labeled with the flags of the victorious teams. Blame statistics, experimental biases, or simple luck of the draw; you won't find me arguing that any sea creature can see into the future. But if I had to take advice from a mollusk, an octopus would be my top choice: They are surprisingly intelligent, as the NOVA scienceNOW team found out while researching a story on these underwater eggheads for the show's upcoming season.


TONMO original posting (Google search octopus Paul site:tonmo.com for others)

 

[DWhatley]

octopus steals my video camera and swims off with it (while it's Recording)

YouTube Victor's Videos Uploaded on Apr 15, 2010

Qwhile trying to get video of a wild octopus, it suddenly dashed towards me and rips my shiny new camera from out of my hands, then swims off, all while the camera is recording! he swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter. after a 5 minute chase, I placed my speargun underneath him and he quickly and curiously grabbed hold of the gun as well, giving me enough time to reach in and grab the camera from out of his mouth. I didn't feel threatened at all during the whole ordeal. he seemed to be fixated on the shiny metallic blue digital camera. the only confusing behavior was how he dashed off with it like a thief haha. cheeky octopus.

Original TONMO reference and discussion

 

[DWhatley]

From the TONMO vault

Portobello Aquarium Amazing Escapes 2004 - Jean

Harry the octopus was notorious for getting out (He was named for Harry Houdini!!). His record was 5 x in 1.5 hours! BUt the best one was one night! We do a check on water flows and animal health etc at 10.30 pm. The aquarist who was doing it was coming down the stairs in the dark and heard a squelching sound in front of her, turned on the light and there was Harry halfway up the stairs!!! Now Harry weighed about 18kg or so and the aquarist was around 5ft 1inches tall and quite slight. She went and got a big net, and started to net him to retiurn him to the tank.....semms it took nearly an hour to get hin in the net, down the stairs and along past two tanks to his own cos he suckers onto her, onto the walls, onto the floor and she'd get some arms in and others would pop out, get them in and the others would pop out (of the net!) and so on.......!!!

Then there was Dr Mike, who got into an adjacent tank and removed all the rock work from the walls (they'd only been cemented in place ) and piled them in a corner! He also was responsable for eating our giant spider crabs!

We'd been asked to ship an octopus to an aquarium on the west coast. So we duly packed up the octopus in a nice comfy chilly bin all duct taped shut. Put a big notice on it ...."CAUTION LIVE OCTOPUS!" This was more to ensure that it didn't get chucked around than anything else. It was flown to Christchurch and then was couriered across the Southern Alps to the west coast.........well part way across the mountains the couriers curiousity got the better of him and he OPENED THE BIN! To be faced with one extremely irate (large) octopus. Then he couldn't get the lid back on properly, I'm told he spent the rest of the trip trying to keep the octopus in the bin!!!! He then had the cheek to send us a bill for cleaning the saltwater out of his truck Needless to say we refused to pay it, suggesting to him that a package being sent from one aquarium to another might just possibly actually contain what it said it did.....and anyway why was he opening our package!!!!!!!!

The octopus lived his natural lifespan out so it obviously didn't do him any harm...the driver tho' may have lost a few years!

I'm busy working before we open, siphoning out the touch tanks when I hear "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP" from out the back. I go to investigate and there's one of the other staff with an octopus wrapped around his legs! Seems he'd decided to give the octopus tank a good scrub and was moving Octavius to a holding tank when he slipped out of the net and grabbed hold! He had 4 arms round the aquarists legs, 2 round his arms (he was tryng to unwind him) and 2 attached to the floor, so he was completely hogtied by this octopus! !

I have to confess I fell about laughing it was sooooooo funny. When I recovered I had to go find a couple of other staff members, it took 3 of us to get Octavius off!

Funny tho' the octopus prisoner didn't see the funny side and was put out with us!




Portobello Aquarium Harry - Jean

The story goes like this.......We had a rather large common octopus called Harry (after Houdini) who we had secured (or so we thought ) in our octopus tank.......anyway we do a security/animal check at around 10pm each night and that particular night it was the then senior aquarists turn, she was five foot 2 or so and Harry measured just over 2m arm spread (I think, it was a long time ago....but he was BIG!) anyway the aquarist was coming down the stairs from the staff room and hadn't bothered to switch on the lights, when she heard......sluuuuuuuuurp.........coming from somewhere in front of her, so back up the stairs, on with the lights and there is Harry, halfway up the stairs!!!!!! She is all by herself.......but.... bravely gets a net an tries to persuade Harry to get in it and stay in! No sooner had she got one set of arms in when another would flash out and grab the wall, the floor, her legs, her arms etc etc........took her three quarters of a hour to wrestle him back into his tank!!!

Shortly after that he escaped 5 times in the space of a couple of hours.........then we released him......too much work!



"I do not like thee Lily Bell. The reason why I cannot tell. But this I know and know full well...

We had another who had a mutual dislike of one of the staff, he hated her she hated him! Every time she walked past the back of the tank, (if the tank doors were open) she got a jet of water (several litres) on the back of her head! It was great fun on days when she was assigned octopus tank cleaning (which if we were feeling was often!) He'd steal the tools, squirt her and if it was a day when we dropped the water level so she could climb into the tank in waders, he'd lunge at her, grab her, pinch the bucket (for crab debris) and on one memorable occasion managed to undo the strap holding one of the waders to her belt and get it filled with water.......very funny for the audience.......strangely... she quit soon after that!



Portobello Aquarium Tank Hopping - Jean

This story is absolutely 110% TRUE!!! It happened at the Aquarium right here at Portobello!!!!

The culprit was our Pinnoctopus cordiformis (then O. maorum ) and he skipped out of his tank over the top of another tank into the Crayfish tank ( Jasus edwardsii ) had a meal and skipped home before the resident technician did his late night checks! He was caught when the tech came in half an hour early to do the checks. I have since seen (PERSONALLY!) other members of this species do the exact same thing (although we've shifted the crays as it's too expensive to keep sending the boats and divers out for more!). We've since sealed the octi tank with perspex sheets (astroturf and all that sort of stuff didn't work!).

Incredible but true.......I have seen with my own eyes!!!



Octo Bites Thread - Roy Caldwell (picture this in a remake of Airplane )

Species of octopus(if known) O. cyanea

Age of octopus: Juvenile

Size of mantle: about 5 cm

Type of bitenibble, series of bites, whether skin broken): beak penetrated skin on hand

How did it occur? during feeding, letting octo climb on top of hand, etc.: Trying to stuff it back into a bottle on a plane.

Reaction: bleeding, redness, other visible effects, pain, and how long did this reaction last: bleeding for 5 minutes

Comments about the bite and your reaction: It hurt but I was distracted while trying to calm down the flight crew and passengers.

 

[DWhatley]

Octopuses disrupt observation cameras - Giant Cuttlefish Blog pgs

We leave video cameras on weighted tripods at the site to film what happens when we're not there. The octopuses were in no mood to leave them be. All three cameras were knocked over and dragged around, lead-weight legs and all. That is what's happening in the first photo above; it's a frame from a sequence on one camera showing another camera being hauled by an octopus into its den, for an attempt at total destruction.

 

[DWhatley]

How the Freaky Octopus Can Help us Understand the Human Brain - By Katherine Harmon Courage October 1, 2012

The octopus displays sophisticated (some might say even irreverent) behavior in the lab too. Just ask Jean Boal, a behavioral researcher at Millersville University. On the way to feed her octopus subjects one day, she suspected they might not like what was on offer: They preferred the very freshest of frozen squid, but the stuff she bore was a bit stale. She doled it out anyway, walking down the line of tanks, dropping a subpar serving into each one. When she finished, she walked back to the first octopus to see if it had gone for the meal. The food was nowhere to be seen, but the cephalopod was waiting for Boal—waiting and watching. This octopus locked eyes with her and moved slowly sideways to the drain in the front right corner of its tank. Pausing above the outflow, it shot the stale squid out of its arms and down the drain, continuing its stare (or was it a glare?) at Boal, who got the message. Two, actually: This octopus was not going to tolerate crummy food—and maybe it even wanted Boal to understand that.

 

[GPO87]

That one with the octopuses stealing the weighted camera's was hilarious!

 

[DWhatley]

GPO, that was one of Peter's (pgs) and Matt's (juggleMatt) observations/experiences at the site Matt first noted the octos living in groups at a site in southern Australia. The whole thread it great as well as Peter's more current updates in his Giant Cuttlefish blog (Matty's been a slacker).

 

[DWhatley]

Fiction
The Investigations of Sherlock Holmes Reminiscences of John Watson, MD by John Heywood (not written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Case of the Vanishing Fish