Octopus living in groups and more stuff

**jugglematt** · Jan 20, '12, 2:29am

i think yes

**jugglematt** · Mar 19, '12, 2:47pm

just a quick video of an dolphin visiting our octopus site

http://youtu.be/QU-h0mmGMCU

**DWhatley** · Mar 19, '12, 6:13pm

Matt,
The video is marked private. Can you change the security to allow anyone with the URL to view it?

**jugglematt** · Mar 20, '12, 1:34am

hows this ??

http://youtu.be/QU-h0mmGMCU

Matt

**DWhatley** · Mar 20, '12, 1:49am

That works. I modified the original post to view it locally.

**jugglematt** · Mar 20, '12, 2:37am

Thanks

**tonmo** · Jan 21, '13, 2:17pm

Very cool related video here, by fellow TONMO member textilet:

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthre...loides-(video)

**DWhatley** · Jan 22, '13, 2:20pm

Visit Peter's The Giant Cuttlefish blog, Letter from Octopolis for more photos

A few months ago I wrote about Octopolis, a site at Jervis Bay, Australia where octopuses have been living continually at high density for several years now. The site was discovered by Matt Lawrence, and we published a paper about it earlier this year.

I’ve made two trips back since that post. The first trip was in October, with Matt and David Scheel, a marine biologist from Alaska who is an expert on the Giant Pacific Octopus. On that trip we started, under David’s guidance, looking also at the broader ecology of the site. There seem to be unusual numbers of many species gathering there – rays and baby sharks, hermit crabs, and starfish. Above hover squid and schools of fish.

A few days ago Matt and I went out there again just to see how things are.

As soon as we arrived we saw octopuses everywhere, with very few of them minding their own business. It was the most interaction I have seen. They were wandering, boxing with their arms, displaying, jetting about. When I tried to measure things I had to wrestle over the tape.

We leave video cameras on weighted tripods at the site to film what happens when we’re not there. The octopuses were in no mood to leave them be. All three cameras were knocked over and dragged around, lead-weight legs and all. That is what’s happening in the first photo above; it’s a frame from a sequence on one camera of another camera being hauled by an octopus into its den, for an attempt at total destruction.
A longer version, with attempts to eat the camera, is here [... to come].

After the octopus here had given up on the first camera and lugged it back out from its den, the other octopus, on the left, attacked the camera that filmed the first sequence.

A good day at Octopolis.

**DWhatley** · Feb 11, '13, 2:55pm

Here is the long version of Peter and Matt's video. Not much more action with the abducted camera but you can see the activity in the area and the amazing number of animals that pass through in addition to several other octopuses moving in the background.

**DWhatley** · Mar 22, '13, 11:22am

This summary article in Practical Fish Keeping is about sting rays and not cephs but may suggest that other "normally" solitary animals will choose to live in groups when food supplies are plentiful. The situation is artificial but makes you wonder if group living is (or has been) more common than we assume when food supply is plentiful.