International media and scientific organisations are lapping up footage of a real life ‘Sharktopus’ filmed in the Hauraki Gulf.
Marine biologist Professor Rochelle Constantine said the encounter in December 2023 was a tale to top them all.
I love this. I wonder what it was doing…
…maybe it is an explorer. I wish octopuses were able to communicate more knowledge intergenerationally. It feels like they don’t currently get the most out of their intellects.
I love this. I wonder what it was doing…
Most likely - I’ll just rest here on this rock, woooah, oh shit oh shit oh shit what’s happening 😱
…maybe it is an explorer. I wish octopuses were able to communicate more knowledge intergenerationally. It feels like they don’t currently get the most out of their intellects.
Maybe they do! Maybe this octopus is shark riding just like it’s grandparents taught it, in order to get to the more fertile feeding grounds for the winter, using the routes passed down from generation to generation.
Well unfortunately no, this is the tragedy of the octopuses - they don’t know their parents and grandparents. Their mothers die when they are born and their fathers are absent, and they are solitary.
Their only chance at learning is social or observational learning from peers but because of the territory arrangements even that doesn’t happen a lot as far as we know, though scientists have observed some younger octopuses learning from watching older ones from a distance.
Octopuses are incredibly smart. They can infer from context, make generalizations, spatially imagine objects, and even show altruism. If only they could do what you said and pass on knowledge the world would be their oyster!
Aw man that’s sad. They were this close 👉 👈 to being the dominant species on the planet.
There’s still time!
As long as they survive climate change…
There was a species discovered awhile ago that formed colonies and was observed pair bonding, intimate mating and spawning multiple times over their lifetime. Completely unlike other octopuses. The Larger Pacific striped octopus.
Sadly, their lifespan is only about two years, which probably is why they aren’t the dominant species.
Thank you so much; I hadn’t heard about that (out of the octopus loop). I can’t find it now but I wonder if the instances I mentioned of wild octopuses learning were somehow related to those - if memory serves it was somewhere off the coast of California so some habitat overlap.
Wow, the LPSO have a lot of evolutionary potential. If their environmental conditions are right who knows what will happen. I don’t mean to sound disloyal to my species but if humans do succeed in dragging themselves back into the stone age it might be time for the octopusses to shine. An Octipodean Era!
I can’t remember exactly where I learnt about the LPSO. Might have been a documentary. Hopefully climate change doesn’t wipe them out.
There is a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky about a planet taken over by genetically modified octopuses that started their own civilisation. They even had their own space ships. Children of Ruin is the title if anyone’s interested.
Hopefully some of them survive. They sound so amazing.
Thanks for the book rec - good timing! I only just read Children of Time a few weeks ago - didn’t realise the sequel was going to be about octopuses, thought it was just going to be spiders in space! @Dave@lemmy.nz has Children of Time on reading list too.
Nice! I think the third one is about corvids. I haven’t got around to it yet as I got sidetracked with other books.
Out of interest what are you guys using to track books? I’m still using good reads. I know it’s crap, but haven’t looked into anything else.
Only an 8 week wait until I can get started!
I’ve just put a hold on Children of Ruin too. A 4 week wait 😆
