Coconut-carrying octopus stuns scientists
The octopus may be smarter than you think: Australian scientists
Tuesday revealed the eight-tentacled species can carry coconut shells to
use as armour - the first case of an invertebrate using tools.
Research biologist Julian Finn said he was "blown away" the first
time he saw the fist-sized veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, pick
up and scoot away with its portable protection along the sea bed.
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An octopus wrapped around the shell of a coconut and using it to
protect itself on the seabed floor. AFP |
"We don't normally associate complex behaviours with invertebrates -
with lower life forms I guess you could say," Finn, from Museum
Victoria, told AFP.
"And things like tool-use and complex behaviour we generally
associate with the higher vertebrates: humans, monkeys, a few birds,
that kind of thing.
"This study, if anything, shows that these complex behaviours aren't
limited to us. They are actually employed by a wide range of animals."
The use of tools is considered one of the defining elements of
intelligence and, although originally considered only present in humans,
has since been found in other primates, mammals and birds.
But this is the first time that the behaviour has been observed in an
invertebrate, according to an article co-authored by Finn and published
in the US-based journal Current Biology.
Finn said when he first saw the octopus walk along awkwardly with its
shell, he didn't know whether it was simply a freak example of wacky
underwater behaviour by the animal whose closest relative is a snail.
"So over the 10-year period basically we observed about 20 octopuses
and we would have seen about four different individuals carrying coconut
shells over large distances," he said of his research in Indonesia.
"There were lots that were buried with coconuts in the mud. But we
saw four individuals actually pick them up and carry them, jog them
across the sea floor carrying them under their bodies. It's a good
sight."
Finn said the animals were slower and more vulnerable to predators
while carrying the broken shells, which they later used as shelters.
"They are doing it for the later benefit and that's what makes it
different from an animal that picks up something and puts it over its
head for the immediate benefit," he said.
Other animals were likely to be discovered to exhibit similar
behaviours, he said.
AFP |
