Octopus offers mankind a gift of peace

[Nephalem]

I had no idea what subsection to put this in, so mods feel free to move it to saltwater, or inverts, or wherever else. However this is hilarious so I wanted to share it with everyone.

This octopus at the Fitzgerald marine reserve came out of the water and walked on land to go on an arduous mission to bring the gift of a crab to this family. He then dropped the offering and returned to his home.



I have no idea what this beautiful creatures motives were, but personally I think it was a peace offering to try and appeal to us to end the destruction and pillaging of its natural environment.

Since I'm sure this wont work, I expect to see it take the next step by coming back on land with a few of its friends carrying ink guns. We had better all prepare my friends. If we don't change our ways soon the cephalopod wars are inevitable...



In all seriousness tho, if anyone here is well versed in the behavior of marine inverts I would be very interested in your take on what this little guy was doing. Did he just happen to have the crab and dropped it when he needed to get back in the water? Or was it actually intended as a gift in the way cats leave birds on your bed? I know it is erroneous to apply human thought processes and characteristics to aquatic life like we tend to do, but this seriously seemed like he was giving it to these people.

[Delphe]

Very cool!! wish I could witness things like this sometimes

[gronlaura]

Wow. Enjoyed the video - whatever his reason for coming on land with the crab, he is a very cool octopus.

[ScottishFish]

Since the octopus is in an enclosure, I feel he may have been looking for a new, same place to devour his meal, but after a short trek he needed back to the water so he cut his losses.

You will notice he does a kinda horseshoe shape scour of the land, suggesting he was looking for other water?

Or maybe he was stoned

[Trillianne]

Octopi are very intelligent. They had an issue here at the Seattle Aquarium with one that would leave his tank... go forage in the neighboring tank and return to his own habitat over night. Took them a bit to figure out who the culprit was.

They also found out who wins in shark vs octopus.

[Nephalem]

Yeah I know they are incredibly clever. That's why I refuse to own one. A friend of mine has one and was trying to talk me into getting one, and I would love to have one to care for as they are one of my all time fav creatures, but I just can't bring myself to imprison one because I feel like they are smart enough to know they are imprisoned in a cube. If they are aware that there is an outside world beyond the glass and that it is better than where they are it just isn't fair to force them to stay. That is incredible about the fight with the shark tho. I know they are vicious if they want to be but I wouldn't have bet it could hold its own against a shark. They do have nasty little beaks tho. Would hurt to get one of those in the side.

[Trillianne]

Neph did you find this thread about the Giant Pacific Octopus mother: http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=79381 ?

Still one of my favorite videos

[Goes to 11!]

Octopus offers mankind a gift of peace

It won't work, He should read our history and then he would know that we are not a peaceful species.

Cool video though!

[bethyMT]

Smart as housecats, man. He was bringing a present.

I also love them. Now, I'd never keep one, but I hold them in high respect, up with whales and dolphins. They're smarter than we are, but sadly do not have opposable thumbs.

[Nephalem]

Hey, thanks trill. No I hadn't seen that video of the one in the sound, but I have seen an octopus go through the breeding cycle before. Heartbreaking isn't it? It's crazy to watch the males after they have finished breeding too. When they go all rogue and crazy till they die.