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Octopus are fascinating creatures who developed their intelligence quite separately from us (our last common ancestor was a flatworm). They have a very differen
by hermitcrab 1y ago
Octopus are fascinating creatures who developed their intelligence quite separately from us (our last common ancestor was a flatworm). They have a very different nervous system to us - much more distributed. And they are an outlier in that pretty much all other creatures exhibiting high intelligence are long-lived and social, whereas octopus are generally short-lived and solitary.
If you want to learn more about them, I recommend:
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Soul_of_an_Octopus/WVa6BQAAQBAJ https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Soul_of_an_Octopu...
Also, the charming film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher
Sadly, some people see them only as food. And there are proposals to intensively farm them in the EU. This seems particularly cruel for an intelligent, solitary animal. The intended method of killing them using cold water also seems cruel and inhumane.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64814781 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64814781
- v3ss0n 1y agoThey would rise up and go to war against human if their life spans are just a bit longer to civilize and if their parents can live long enough to teach their young. But , for now , they eat hermitcrabs for lunch :P .
- amelius 1y agoReminder that pigs are also intelligent creatures.
- hermitcrab 1y agoI don't eat them either.
- actionfromafar 1y agoThat they are not social is questioned more and more. Instead they seem to interact both within their species and with completely different species. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-octopuses-team-up-with-fish-to-hunt-and-punch-those-that-dont-contribute-180985134/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-octopuses-te... https://www.livescience.com/53514-octopuses-lead-social-lives.html https://www.livescience.com/53514-octopuses-lead-social-live...
- hermitcrab 1y agoThey are not completely asocial. But they don't generally live and move in groups the way many other species do.