Friday Cephalopod: Dancing on the edge of the abyss

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An Octopus unscrewing a lid from the inside.
Octopuses are going to kill us all someday
I had a biology teacher that told us this story about an octopus at an aquarium in Australia. The staff were concerned because their population of crustaceans kept disappearing. No bodies or anything. So they checked the video feed to find out what’s up.
Across from the the crustacean tank was a small octopus tank. This little fucker squeezed out of a tiny hole at the top of his tank, walk across the hall, and get into the crustacean tank. He would then hunt and eat. After he was done, he crawled back out and get back in his tank
Here’s the kicker: security guards patrolled the area. The staff realized that the octopus had memorized the security’s routine. It would escape and be back between the guards’ round.
My friend who worked at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska had as similar story. Rare fish were disappearing, they suspected theft, and so set up a camera. An octopus was unlocking the top of its tank, walking across the suspended walkway, unlocking the other tank, eating his fill, re-locking the other tank, then re-locking its own tank.
O_O WHAT
I surrender now. Just let me keep my apartment.
Then there’s Otto the octopus, a crab-juggling attention seeker of Coburg, Germany, who ‘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.’
Unfortunately short circuiting the power to the building But at least he got rid of that annoying light.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-th…
Someone needs to teach octopuses how to do Sudoku or Rubik’s cube or something, to keep ‘em busy!

By Gary Craven (not verified) on 29 Aug 2014 #permalink