How Smart Is the Octopus?

[rpannier]

Aristotle didn't have a high opinion of the octopus. "The octopus is a stupid creature," he wrote, "for it will approach a man's hand if it be lowered in the water." Twenty-four centuries later, this "stupid" creature is enjoying a much better reputation.

YouTube is loaded with evidence of what some might call octopus intelligence.

One does an uncanny impression of a flounder.

Another mimics coral before darting away from a pushy camera.

A third slips its arms around a jar, unscrews it, and dines on the crab inside.

Scientific journals publish research papers on octopus learning, octopus personality, octopus memory. Now the octopus has even made it into the pages of the journal Consciousness and Cognition (along with its fellow cephalopods the squid and the cuttlefish). The title: "Cephalopod consciousness: behavioral evidence."


link:
http://www.slate.com/id/2192211/?GT1=38001

on note: I altered the organization of the article in my post to make it more reader friendly.
The above post is one single paragraph. But, I didn't like the way it looked for reading purposes.

[Orrex]

1. IA! Cthulhu!

[InkAddict]

2. Please PROMIS to ask Danny that question when you see him, okay? n/t

[merh]

3. I used to scuba

One area we would dive was a rocky penisula that folks would fish from. When we were going out into the waves we saw a fisherman in one area just casting his line in. As we went underwater we swam near the area he had been casting to. Sitting in the rocks was an octopus. We floated nearby and watched as the octopus waited for the fisherman's line to sink within his reach. He would use one tentacle to grab the line and another one to remove the bait from the fisherman's hook, then he would let go of the line and eat the bait. We watched him for quite some time as he stole the bait and enjoyed his lunch then we just continued on with our dive.

When we surfaced the fisherman was mad as hell, he accused us of playing tricks on him and stealing his bait. We were laughing as we told him that it wasn't us, it was the octopus. I'm not sure he believed us though.

That octopus was smarter than the fisherman and much happier. :)

[Connonym]

4. Far less smart than an Oeditpus

I think...

[elshiva]

5. They make great gardeners.

;)