Consider the octopus. With eight arms, elliptical pupils, colour- and texture-changing skin, and a scary beak, it is a creature that seems conjured from the most Boschian of realities.
But the cephalopod is quite real. There are around 300 species of octopus, which inhabit saltwater, from tide pools to the abyssal depths of the ocean.
Research on octopuses in recent years has yielded marvellous insights about the animals’ habits and, in more speculative findings, their minds. Here are some of the most interesting discoveries about octopus intelligence and behaviour — including many examples of them being downright rude.
Octopuses are antisocial and punch fish
In research published in 2021, octopuses were observed punching fish during collaborative feeding sessions. In some cases, the punches were to “prevent exploitation and ensure collaboration,” according to the researchers. In other words, keeping the peace.
But in other situations, it seemed that the octopuses punched the fish for no other reason than to punch them. Octopuses are famously antisocial animals and are solitary even when it comes to their own species.
If you give an octopus a… molly
That’s right. In 2018, a group of researchers gave octopuses MDMA, popularly known as molly or ecstasy. Octopuses are typically asocial creatures, so the scientists wanted to see how a drug that affects serotonin levels (and induces extraversion in people) would impact the octopuses.
As it turned out, the normally solitary octopuses spent time with one another after sitting in an MDMA bath, even going as far as touching each other with their arms in an exploratory (as opposed to confrontational) way. Whether this says more about octopuses or the power of MDMA is perhaps for you to decide, but still! It’s cool that octopuses can play nice, sometimes.
They throw shells at each other
Look, the main thing you need to know about octopuses is that they are smart and cranky. Last year, scientists described seeing octopuses gathering silt and shells off the seafloor in Jervis Bay, Australia, and flinging them at their peers.
The researchers believe the throws must serve a social purpose. But to my untrained eye, this looks pretty antisocial.
Octopuses can taste with their arms
California two-spot octopuses react differently when touching prey (tasty morsels) than when they touch less-appetizing items (ordinary objects like a coffee mug), according to research published in 2020.
Octopus arms have chemotactile receptors, sensory cells that the researchers believe give the animals their impressive touch ability — a touch so sensitive that, in an octopus’s nervous system, it’s interpreted much like taste is to humans.
They have ‘jumping genes,’ like humans
A study published last year found that octopuses carry transposons, or “jumping genes,” that can jump around to different parts of an organism’s genome. According to LiveScience, some jumping genes in humankind are associated with learning and memory formation.
Turns out octopuses carry the same kind of jumping gene. By combining these findings with more observations of octopus brain activity, we may improve our understanding of the animals’ intelligence.
They dream in gifs
Research published in 2021 tracked octopuses’ sleep schedules. The scientists found that the animals had sleep states similar to REM states in humans, when we dream.
If the animals are dreaming, though, the researchers don’t think they have dreams as complex or lengthy as our own. “It should be more like small video clips, or even gifs,” one researcher told Gizmodo. As new approaches to studying octopus minds come to bear, we may get a better understanding of how they think.
Octopuses use tools
The eight-armed mollusks are among the few animals known to use tools to further their goals. In the octopus’s case, the animals were observed using coconut shells as a shelter.
More to come?
In February 2023, researchers announced that they had managed to record brain activity in freely moving octopuses for the first time. The scientists implanted electrodes and a data logger into day octopuses (Octopus cyanea).
Brain activity patterns recorded in the research have not yet been tied to specific behaviours, but if the practice sticks, it may provide more information about the inner workings of the octopus, and specifically how their brain activity corresponds to their movements.
There are ethical questions here, as is the case whenever devices are inserted into animals that cannot express consent. But inserting devices into the animals for science is arguably better than frying and eating them (and persuasively so, in the opinion of this writer).