![]() Octopuses want to know about everything around them, something many humans don’t even do. Humans like to pride ourselves over our thumb and forefinger pincer grasp, setting us apart from other animals and helping us to claim it’s why we can manipulate the environment so well, but octopuses can fold the two sides of their suckers together and can grasp just like we can, and they have hundreds of suckers compared to our 4 digits. They have been observed carrying around coconut shells to arrange later as a makeshift shelter and can open a child proof pill bottle, which come on, many adult humans can’t even do. Octopuses have been known to escape their tanks to eat a crab or fish in an adjacent tank and then return to their own tanks before anyone notices. (And by the way, I didn’t make this up, Aquariums do supply these toys!) Potato Head or the latest Lego set to the resident octopus. Maybe next time you visit the aquarium, donate a Mr. Octopuses have also figured out how to blow on objects back and forth, as if playing with a ball, and that’s definitely, “a novel act,” as is decorating their dens.Īn Octopus Enrichment Handbook has even been written to help aquarium staff keep their octopuses minds engaged, because perhaps they need to play. I’m pretty sure, turning on lights by directing jets of water over and over isn’t an act of instinct, just as, plugging up tanks to flood aquariums or squirting butterflies in the air for no apparent reason is beyond routine. ![]() And to be considered conscious, a requirement is that one must perform novel acts beyond routine or instinct. They have unique personalities, can navigate simple mazes using visual cues to achieve their goals, they solve puzzles, form mental maps, demonstrate foresight and planning, evaluate situations, use tools and do things for fun. The people they don’t like, often get a shot of water from their siphon in the face. Proven in studies, octopuses can recognize and either like or dislike individual humans, remembering them even if they haven’t seen them in months. Two areas of their brain are specialized for short and long-term memory, other areas are dedicated to learning. Though a member of the Mollusca phylum with clams and mussels, the octopus is classified as a Cephalopod (seffa-luh-pod) and unlike its mollusk relatives, octopuses have a centralized brain. Yes, a blob of slimy, rubbery, sticky legs is demonstrating the “defined” characteristics of intelligence. The truth is, an octopus is as smart as your Labrador retriever or 3 year-old child. ![]() Humans have been denying, ignoring, falsifying, shying away from and tip-toeing around the intelligence of non-human animals since we decided to “civilize” and separate ourselves from the Natural World, but the Octopus is pulling apart our belief system on intelligence and challenging our understanding of consciousness itself. How do we unbiasedly define intelligence? What does it mean to be sentient? Have a consciousness? And how do we draw the lines?
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