[Featured]: Octopus living in groups and more stuff

[Cerulean]

Matt, there is a study going on in Capri where they hypothesize the octopus are living in groups and learning from each generation's life experiences. It's groundbreaking stuff. I saw it on a documentary on the Science channel called Underwater Aliens.

 

[jugglematt]

as i said the whole video is about 12mins and my internet connection is quite slow down here .

im sure the occy in this video is visited by divers frequently , its a very common dive site , the occy also looked a bit damaged with one tentacle almost and some bark off.

the idea that there are other group living occys is news to me , ill have to search for the docco
thanks
Matty

 

[tonmo]

Matty, LMK if you want to send me the DVD of the video (and any other footage) and I'd post it on TONMO for you.

I'm starting to look at the YouTube API to see if there's something we can do to integrate.

 

[Lmecher]

This thread is amazing! Your interaction with these sweet gentle octopuses confirms just why we love them so. Thank you so much for sharing your expereinces. Keep them comming.

 

[SabrinaR]

This thread is amazing! Your interaction with these sweet gentle octopuses confirms just why we love them so. Thank you so much for sharing your expereinces. Keep them comming.

No kidding just fantastic... Thank you for sharing.

 

[jugglematt]

thanks folks
well we went out again on the weekend , numbers of occys are building on the Midden site , and the dominant occy is more bold and up to his old tricks.

he took a shine to my buddys spare regulator and tried to take it from him,grabing on and pulling reallly hard , i think the shiny crome was the thing , the occy pulled and pulled and draged it into his home ,after some real effort , ( this guy is strong !) my buddy managed to get it back but with lots of tugging .

the dominalt occy also took my yellow torch that i offered to him for a look , then we couldent get it back , he put his whole body over it , only by distracting him with another offering could we get it back ,
he played with my diversafety sausage , my brass clips , and came right out of his hole very curious , not at all scared , he sort of let me hold him and sort of lift him up .

very cool dive , and shows that these octopus are moody , and sometimes they are keen to play and interact and other times they are not in the mood .

Regards
Matty

 

[DWhatley]

Some of the thievery antics reported with the larger octos always makes me think of the tales about dragons and their hording of treasure and I have wondered if middens are more than just a garbage pile and humans just don't recognized the contents as having value.

 

[DWhatley]

Matt,
Perchance have you talked with Peter Godfrey-Smith about your octo group? This is from an article in the Harvard Gazette:

He also has explored the idea that octopuses — thought to be solitary creatures — may interact socially. During his dives, he has seen two octopuses living just two feet apart for more than a week in Sydney Harbour and has visited a diver down the coast who has found a group of octopuses living together and interacting.

If not, one of us should send him a link to this thread. There is a reference in the article to his Havard home page that contains an email address.

 

[jugglematt]

Hi , and thanks for the link
yep i have had a chat with peter
and he actually came down to the local site and did some dives , i think he was hoping to revisit the site when he next came to Australia.


attached are a few pics of the octopus at the midden recently .
i took some things along this time to see if the occys would play some more .

first i presented a glass bottle filled with sand(to stop float away) with the top plugged with some grass.
the dominant occy really liked it , took it , put his body completely over it , later he could be seen , he had removed the grass from the top and had a tentacle inside and was playing about .

i also to a couple of stones ( nah not interested)
and a small orange plastic cylinder , played a bit but lost interest .

photos to follow
Regards
Matty

 

[DWhatley]

Matty,
Should you talk with him again, Haggs did a little impromptude experimentation with bringing and swapping treasures as well and you might mention the thread if he wants an additional place to experiement.

Very cool to see some unofficial, official attention to the subject. I've been paying a lot more attention to the arms since reading the article.

 

[jugglematt]

 

[DWhatley]

Matty,
The photo link is failing but after some messing around, I came up with these:

 

[jugglematt]

thanks

 

[cuttlegirl]

Love the shot of the octopus waving its tentacle!

 

[pgs]

Hi Dwhatley,

Thanks for posting the link to the Harvard Gazette article. Matty's octopuses are pretty amazing.

PGS