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Animals & Wildlife

Diver convinces a tiny octopus to trade a plastic cup for a shell in Pixar-worthy video

The cup wasn't a safe choice, but the little cephalopod was stubborn.

Pall Sigurdsson/YouTube

Plastic is a problem for ocean wildlife.

Sometimes taking care of our beautiful home planet looks like big, broad policies tackling issues like plastic pollution and habitat destruction. And sometimes it looks like taking the time to help one tiny creature stuck in an environmental bind.

In a YouTube video that's been viewed a whopping 20 million times, we see an example of the latter in action as some kind and compassionate divers attempt to convince an octopus to abandon the plastic cup it's using for protection and trade it for a sturdy shell. Pall Sigurdsson has shared dozens of underwater videos on YouTube, but watching this particular video from his dive off the coast of Lembeh, Indonesia, in 2018 almost feels like watching a Pixar short film.

luxo jr lamp GIF by Disney PixarGiphy

"We spent a whole dive and most of our air saving this octopus from what was bound to be a cruel fate," Sigurdsson wrote in the description of the video.

"The coconut octopus, also known as veined octopus, is born with the instinct to protect itself by creating a mobile home out of coconut or clam shells. This particular individual however has been trapped by their instincts and have made a home out of a plastic cup they found underwater."

It's not just that the flimsy plastic cup didn't provide the octopus adequate protection. Sigurdsson explained that a predator like an eel or a flounder would probably end up swallowing the cup with the octopus in it, likely killing both of them. Plus, even if the octopus abandoned the cup on its own, plastic simply doesn't belong in the ocean.

plastic in the ocean, plastic pollution, ocean wildlifePlastic doesn't belong in the ocean.Photo credit: Canva

"We tried for a long time to give it shells hoping that it would trade the shell," he wrote. "Coconut octopus are famous for being very picky about which shells they keep so we had to try with many different shells before it found one to be acceptable."

If you think an octopus in a cup making a decision about shells doesn't sound riveting, just watch:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

The tentacles reaching out to test the weight of each shell, the divers searching for more options to offer it, the suspense of wondering whether the octopus really would abandon its pathetic plastic pollution protection...it's just too much.

Sigurdsson's other underwater videos are also fun to watch. He shared one of another veined octopus who seemed to have no interest in him but became intrigued with his diver friend, Gary. The way it reaches out to touch just the tip of his finger and then shyly retreats feels like such a clear communication with no words being said.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Octopuses are far more intelligent than anyone would have guessed before we started studying their behavior in earnest. They are known to solve puzzles, escape complicated mazes and traps, and take apart just about anything. It does make you wonder what these little guys were thinking when these divers were interacting with them. Was it curiosity? Judgment? An attempt at connection between species?

It's funny how one small interaction in one tiny portion of the vast ocean can say so much about us, for better and for worse. Human pollution is an enormous problem and saving one little octopus won't save the world, but it sure gives us hope and motivation to keep trying for the sake of the vast number of creatures that live in the ocean as well as our own.

You can find more underwater videos of ocean wildlife from Pall Sigurdsson on YouTube.

This article originally appeared four years ago.

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Science

Watch pet octopus complete complex obstacle course, earning her return to home in the wild

Sashimi showed Mark Rober she could thrive in the ocean after getting used to being hand-fed at the pet store.

Mark Rober/YouTube

Sashimi had to push buttons and move objects out of the way to get to her goal.

When you start listing the kinds of animals people keep as pets, "octopus" may not even make the list. But some people do try to keep the smart cephalopods as pets, and some pet stores do sell them.

YouTube science and engineering educator Mark Rober found this out first hand when he procured his pet octopus, Sashimi, from a pet store. After some research, he found out that octopuses (yes, "octopuses" is just as acceptable as "octopi") are not bred in captivity, which means Sashimi was taken from the ocean. As he says, he was "hit with the startling realization" that he had unintentionally become "the bad guy from Finding Nemo."

To make things right again, Rober found out from the pet store exactly where Sashimi had come from and set out to determine whether she would be able to go back home and live in the ocean again after becoming accustomed to being hand-fed at the pet store. Returning her to the wild wouldn't exactly be thoughtful or kind if she couldn't feed herself, so Rober constructed a maze for Sashimi with some delicious shrimp—her favorite food—at the end to see if she could figure out how to get to them.

"The idea was that if she could figure out and remember how to solve an obstacle course maze, then I would be assured that she could figure out and remember her early days hunting in the ocean and we could send her back home with confidence," shared Rober.

So in classic Mark Rober fashion, he constructed a complex underwater maze for Sashimi to navigate. And as he explained how she figured out each obstacle in the course, he also shared some fascinating facts about octopuses, such as:

- Their ability to color and shape-shift is unmatched in the animal world, with the ability to mimic larger, more predatory animals

- Their blood is blue because it's cooper-based, which is more efficient in cold water environments.

- If they lose an arm, they can regrow it completely, and you won't be able to tell it's any different than the original.

- Octopuses are the closest thing we have to intelligent alien life on Earth, in that octopus intelligence evolved independently of the vertebrate creatures we associate with animal intelligence.

- They have twice the number of neurons as a cat, but only a third of them are in their brain. The other 2/3 are in their arms, giving them the ability not just to taste and smell but also to think and act with their arms, independently of their brain.

Watch Sashimi make her way through Rober's maze, which took her about a month to master.

Rober's ability to educate and entertain at the same time without overdoing either one is part of why he has nearly 30 million followers on YouTube. But his willingness to drive 8 hours to return Sashimi to her home so she could live out the rest of her short life in the wild is part of it, too. It's one thing to study an octopus in a maze simply for the fun of it; it's another to know it's being done in service to the animal itself.

Well done, Sashimi. We hope you find plenty of shrimp to nosh on now that you're home once again.

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Sustainability

Octopus fans, get ready for an epic deep dive featuring the ocean’s coolest creature.

What has eight arms, three hearts, and millions of fans?

Photo courtesy of Octonation

Behold, the magicians of the sea

True

On Thursday, August 4 at 10 am PST, swim on over to join Upworthy’s Instagram Live with OctoNation, a nonprofit organization and Facebook group that proudly calls itself “The Largest Octopus Fan Club.”

If you’re a sucker for suckers, then you have found your tribe. Not only does OctoNation have a sticker club and create epic Octo-swag (we’re talking coffee mugs, stickers, sweatshirts…all designed to delight your inner cephalopod-ophile), they also provide amazing videos and resources like Octopedia that educate the world about the many, many different species of octopuses.

For instance, have you ever heard of a Mimic Octopus?

Look out, Meryl Streep! This species should win an Oscar for all the roles it can play. There are 15 known animals the Mimic can transform into, including the flatfish, lionfish, sea snake, brittle stars, sea anemones, jellyfish, stingray, crabs, and the mantis shrimp…just to name a few.

What about a Seven-arm Octopus?

Don’t worry—this species does have eight arms. But that doesn’t make it any less weird. Males of this super rare species grow a mating arm under their right eye, which they use to deliver sperm to a female up to 20 times larger than he is. In a perplexing display of chivalry, he’ll then break off his mating arm so that she can fertilize her eggs. How progressive.

Seriously, just when you think you’ve learned everything there is to know about these fascinating creatures, another new surprising fact emerges from the depths. Luckily, organizations like OctoNation are here to bring the pure wonder of these squishy sea puppies to dry land. And on Aug 4th, viewers won’t only get to geek out, they’ll get to show off their creative side…and perhaps win a special prize.

Chris Adams, OctoNation’s Creative Director, will be hosting a fun drawing class so that everyone can learn how to sketch out an octobuddy of their very own. Adams designs all of Octonation’s artwork, so you know you’ll be in good hands…even if he only has two of them instead of eight. Plus, folks will be able to post their drawings onto Instagram Stories for a chance to win 1 of 5 octopus plushies. I repeat, a squishy octopus plushie could be in your possession. This is not a drill.

Mark your calendars. We hope to see everyone there. Octopuses have captured our imaginations for centuries, and yet there’s still so much to learn and love about them.


Like A Boss Sunglasses GIFGiphy

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Planet

Octopuses sometimes punch the fish they go hunting with, just cuz they feel like it

@TANAKASBEANIE/Twitter

Have you ever been part of a group project and had the overwhelming urge to punch one of your partners?

Of course you have. We all have. Even those of us who aren't prone to violence can understand the urge. In fact, we're all engaged a big group project right now called The Coronavirus Pandemic, and there are whole lot of people in the U.S. group who are just begging for a smackdown. Still think the virus is a "hoax"? Thwap. Wearing your mask as a chin diaper instead of covering your mouth and nose? Whpsh. Toting your AR-15 to the state capitol to threaten public officials because they insist on trying to protect public health? TKO time.

Apparently, those of us who are feeling a bit punchy these days are in good company. A new study has found that octopuses occasionally punch fish that they cooperatively hunt with, seemingly just because they feel like it. Though it's not clear exactly why they do it, scientists say it doesn't appear to be an act of aggression. Some think that they might do it out of "spite" or to influence better hunting behavior.

In other words, Mr. Octopus is hunting along with some annoying group of fish until he's finally like, "Dude, you're bugging the crap out of me. Stop it." Thwack. Or "Dude, you're fudging everything up. Knock it off." Thwack.

Some scientists also think octopuses will throw a punch in a self-serving, I'm-taking-that-just-because-I-can of way. "Dude, back the hell up. That prey is mine." Thwack.

Why some angry octopuses punch fishwww.youtube.com


If we want to get a bit more scientific about it, octopuses are known to hunt collaboratively with fish so that they can cover more area and increase their chances of catching something. In a new report published in Ecology, scientists describe how one kind of octopus in particular, the big blue octopus (also known as day octopus), seems to express displeasure with their hunting partners by randomly lashing out, using "a swift, explosive motion with one arm." Or in other words, punching.

That's the word the scientists actually use. Punching. Yay, science.

It seems that the humor is just inherent in the visuals. Eduardo Sampaio, one of the study authors and a Ph.D. student at the University of Lisbon, found it hilarious when he first observed the behavior from the cephalopods he was studying. "I laughed out loud, and almost choked on my own regulator," he told Live Science in an email.

It might seem like the most logical explanation is that the octopus is simply knocking the fish away from the prey it wants. Sampaio explained that that is what some scenarios indicate.

"Despite collaborating, each partner will always try to maximize its benefits," he told Live Science. "In the cases where prey is readily available, the octopus seems to use 'punching' as a way to control the partner's behavior in a self-serving way."

However, the researchers also observed that there were instances where there didn't seem to be any benefit to the octopus to punch the fish. More research is needed to figure out what that's all about, but that's where the "spite" speculation comes in.

It is quite something to witness—the octopus and fish swimming along nicely together when all of a sudden one of those tentacled arms flies out and punches a fish out of nowhere. It's also fun to speculate whether the octopus is just being a big old bully or if that fish actually deserved it.

We can come up with whole storylines for why Mr. Octopus feels justified in sucker-punching his partner. Maybe the octopus is in a bad mood and the fish is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe the little guy is just super needy and hovering, and it's the octopus's way of saying, "Back off. Just because we work together doesn't mean we're gonna be friends."

Octopuses are, after all, one of the most intelligent animals on earth. My guess is if they're punching the creatures they're working with, they probably have a good reason for it.

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