Coconut-collecting octopus

[Hajar]

This is fun: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8408233.stm

 

[DWhatley]

I can see where the researcher was very lucky indeed not to have drown

 

[Tintenfisch]

Love the 'stilt-walking'!

 

[OB]

Kewlness

 

[ckeiser]

Very cool. I love how the octo keeps a keen eye on the diver even when hiding between the shells.

 

[sorseress]

Very kewl indeed. Poor guy finally got fed up with being" stalked".

 

[monty]

rolling coconut version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPnd_KzGdHI&feature=player_embedded

 

[DWhatley]

My mother called me to tell me her MSN News showed information as if the coconut octopus was a brand new discovery. Cool for her to call (and notice) but I had to explain this was not a new find, just a new video.

 

[mucktopus]

Monty this is brilliant footage! I've been hearing about that behavior (along with another of the octopus closing the shell around it and walking on two arms sticking through the gap) since 2000 but have never seen the rolling myself! Fantastic!

take care,
Crissy

 

[Hajar]

I'm starting to be very impressed with these creatures.

 

[OB]

Made it to the front page "menu bar" of our most esteemed daily newspaper, "NRC Handelsblad", yay for octopodes!

 

[blue_ringed57]

so cool. I told my prof about it and she didn't believe me that invertebrates could use tools. Once I showed her the video her jaw hit the floor :P I keep telling people cephalopods are smart!!!

 

[DWhatley]

... brings a new meaning to educating the educator

 

[OB]

Ants invented substrate based agriculture, so, never underestimate inverts, ever.

 

[ckeiser]

Everyone I know has been emailing, facebooking, or asking me if I'd heard of this. I love to see a ceph to widely publicised in the news and general public

 

[DWhatley]

I agree that it is fun and interesting that this has interested so many people. It made my mother's MSNBC news clips and she had to call me, hoping she would deliver news I had not heard. I disappointed her but told her to keep trying .

 

[CrossFire86]

Put the octo in the coconut, you such a silly woman!,
Put the octo in the coconut, put them both together,
Put the octo in the coconut, then you feel better.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

Is that an African or a European octopus?

 

[CaptFish]

They were Australian scientist and they were studying the octos off the coasts of Northern Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

I know, it was a bad joke (in reference to the coconut and swallow scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail).