"Bizarre" Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters

[WillParkinson]

"Bizarre" Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters

Octopuses have been discovered tip-toeing with coconut-shell halves suctioned to their undersides, then reassembling the halves and disappearing inside for protection or deception, a new study says.

"We were blown away," said biologist Mark Norman of discovering the octopus behavior off Indonesia. "It was hard not to laugh underwater and flood your mask."

The coconut-carrying behavior makes the veined octopus the newest member of the elite club of tool-using animals—and the first member without a backbone, researchers say.

<snip>

The octopus's coconut carrying qualifies as tool use, Finn said, because the shells provide only "delayed benefits."

Octopuses of many species are well known for their intelligence. In captivity they've been known to navigate mazes, seem to be able to remember past events, and are cunning escape artists. (See "Curious Octopus Floods Aquarium.")

Octopus Tool Use Especially Surprising

Tool use, once thought to be a uniquely human behavior, is seen as a sign of considerable mental sophistication among nonhuman animals.

It's been known for years now that chimpanzees use whole "tool kits," that some dolphins attach sponges to their beaks for fishing, and that crows fish for insects using sticks and leaves, for example.

Even so, the octopus discovery stands apart.

"I really wasn't expecting to see tool use appear in cephalopods"—squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses—said biological anthropologist Craig Stanford, co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center in Los Angeles, who wasn't involved in the new study.

That the octopuses weren't using their tools to rustle up dinner only added to Stanford's surprise. "Even chimps," he added, "do not use natural materials to create shelters over their heads."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-octopus-carries-coconuts-coconut-carrying.html

[closeupready]

1. That is really interesting.

:)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. HAAAAAA!!! ZONMG!!!11!!!! So Silly!!

Too dammmmmm CUTE!!

Thanks, I needed that!

[roguevalley]

10. aren't they the cutest things ever?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. yes!!

tiptoeing! :rofl: :rofl:

:loveya:

[roguevalley]

13. Reminds me of a spinster hoisting up her skirts so that she can

run from something. :)

[Warren Stupidity]

3. I've stopped eating cephalopods.

They no longer qualify as edible to me due to the high probability of advanced sentience within the species.

[lazarus]

4. same here

it was tough giving up squid, but I guess I have classify them with the octopi. Definitely can't eat octopi anymore.

[damntexdem]

5. Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?

;-)

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. It could be carried by a swallow -

or maybe an octopus.

[BadgerKid]

8. An African or European swallow?

[xultar]

6. I saw this a while back. I see it as totally funny.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

9. Cthulhu in a coconut.

[rug]

12. If they looked closer they'd see trailmix.