Octopuses Can Make Improvised Shelters for Protection However, in the past few years scientists have discovered that some octopuses can acquire items that they use as tools when the right opportunity comes along. Until recently, there weren’t any reports of invertebrates using tools.
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Learn more by reading one of my most popular articles Why do Octopus have 3 Hearts, 9 Brains, and Blue Blood? Smart Suckers! How do Octopuses Use Tools? It doesn’t hurt to have 9 brains!! Octopuses have mini-brains in each arm and a central brain to keep everything coordinated! See my article on how crocodiles can use tools to attract birds. Ever since the ‘60s, scientists have described a growing number of mammals and birds that can use tools. Leakey’s famous response to Jane Goodall about her observations of chimpanzees using tools. “Now we must redefine ‘tool’, redefine ‘man’, or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Tool use among a non-human species was considered so improbable at the time that her conclusions were met with incredulity. In documenting these observations, Goodall was certain that she had identified tool-use among chimpanzees. In 1960, Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees making tools by stripping the leaves off twigs, and then bending and using the twigs to probe for termites. Originally, tool-use was regarded as a defining feature of the human species and thought to be unique to us as humans. One benchmark indication of cognitive sophistication is the use of tools. Octopuses demonstrate novel ways of applying knowledge, making new links, and adapting to changing environments. We’ll see in this article how this description is fitting when it comes to octopus intelligence. And intelligence predicts how well we are able to adapt to changing environments.” I’ve come to believe that intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge in novel ways, making links between things that weren’t seen as linked before.
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In response to the question about intelligence, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin writes, “There are great disagreements about what intelligence is and how to measure it. Or perhaps Otto just preferred to sleep in the dark…! What is Intelligence? It appears that Otto was smart enough to figure out how to turn out the lights and to make the connection between turning out the lights and watching humans run around in a commotion. In the morning when the director turned on the lights, she saw Otto the octopus shooting water at his lights. Some of the staff spent the night in the aquarium, watching and waiting, but saw nothing. “And on the third day, we just had to know what was happening.” Nothing is working,” reported the Director. “Every day for like two or three days, when you get into the aquarium, you know, it’s just silent. Staff managed to get the system working in the morning, and the next night it happened again. (Remind me not to visit!) One night, Otto climbed up the side of his tank and squirted water at the 2,000-watt spotlight overhead, shorting out the aquarium’s entire electrical system.
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Otto the octopus, at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany was taught to aim and squirt water at visitors.
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How Can an Octopus Turn out the Lights? Octopuses living in captivity are smart enough to turn out the lights with jets of water. And they are as smart as your average dog. In captivity, they can learn to solve puzzles, open screw-top jars, and squirt humans they don’t like. They can use tools, carry coconut shells for shelter, stack rocks to protect their dens, and carry jellyfish tentacles for defense. Cephalopods, including octopuses, are the smartest invertebrates on the planet.