Research: Clever Octopuses

Tony Pinkevich for Untime

The topic may seem totally random, but quite a few of my research topics need some context. In this case, I'm taking an Ocean Media class at university. We're assigned to a creative final project, which included the possibility of a creative story; of course, that caught my attention. Secondarily, browsing Tumblr, I came across a series of stories demonstrating how smart octopuses are, almost in a human capacity. I decided I really needed to know more about octopuses. Just bear with my dork levels for a couple of minutes.

The above video gives us a front row seat to an octopus learning by observation - just like babies with walking, talking, or eating properly. In this case, at the Anton Dohrn Zoological Institute in Italy, two octopuses are watched in a super interesting study. The two octopuses are in adjacent tanks, able to see each other through a glass wall, and one of the octopuses (the Trainee) has experience with the experiment. A crab is put in a box that has three varieties of openings; the scientists let the new octopus observe the experienced octopus open the box, and then they block of the glass partition to see if the new octopus can open the box on his own.

There are many, many, many stories of escaping octopuses in aquariums. I prefer the stories about their mischief when they're not really trying to leave.

Otto the Octopus

This guy decided he didn't like the obnoxious light over his tank, so he squirted water at it until the entire system shorted out. When this was discovered, the aquarium crew gave him a chessboard to keep him busy. At first, it worked, but then the bored octopus tossed it out of the tank.

Santa Monica Octopus

This curious California two-spotted octopus swam to the top of her tank and disassembled a valve that caused flooding in all nearby exhibits and offices. The octopus survived, but the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium's new floors? Not so much.

The Spoiled Shrimp Hater

This story doesn't technically come from a credible source - cough *Tumblr* cough - but it's too amazing to pass up. Apparently, this octopus's handler dumped a meal of shrimp into this one's tank; just a little while later, a shrimp was tossed on the handler's desk. On finding one off shrimp, the octopus had escaped its tank and made its way to the handler's office just to toss the bad shrimp at him.

Inky the Octopus

This daring escape happened only a few days ago at the National Aquarium of New Zealand. Inky the Octopus escaped from his tank, crossed about eight feet of floor, and then made his way down a drainpipe into Hawke's Bay, earning his freedom. His friend, Blotchy, stayed behind in the tank. Aquarium manager, Rob Yarrall, commented, "Didn't even leave us a message."

The stellar intelligence of octopuses provides a lot of story possibilities, and could be a lot of fun in the realm of personification. I'll definitely be looking into this as a possibility for a final creative project and for my own writing satisfaction.