Fans of the traditional Japanese boxed lunch have welcomed news of a self-packing octopus. Staff at the New England Aquarium were able to encourage a 7-foot Giant Pacific Octopus to cram itself into a tiny 15" box. Aquarist Bill Murphy said:
I place one or two live crabs inside the box and the octopus has to learn how to open the box to get the food. I start the octopus off with the small box and once he has mastered the lock I switch to another box and once he has mastered each individual box I put a box inside a box to keep him active and challenged.
Full story here. Hat tip to Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science.
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tags: behavior, environmental enrichment, giant Pacific octopus, Octopus dofleini, cephalopod, animal intelligence
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