octopus climbing out of tanks

Veronique wrote:

A video
finally captured the octopus sliding open the lid of its tank,
escaping to the mollusk tank and having a meal, returning to its tank
*and sliding the lid closed*.

It's a shame they don't put that video on their web site.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.

"Nehmo" wrote in message ps.com...
That story seems to say the crabs would win against the octopus. I
suppose it depends on how big they were. But, yes, you're right,
there's no video. Certainly, videos back then were rare.

I'm beginning to conclude the traveling-oct story has no truth to it.
Since plenty of people keep them as aquarium subjects, behavior as
bizarre as this would have been better documented by now.

There was a video about it, it is called "The Octopus Show".
It is part of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC "Journeys With Wildlife" series.
I got it on DVD from eBay.co.uk - maybe you will find it also.
I do not remember if there is actual scene in the movie with octopus
actually doing the trick or if there is only a verbal report about it
done by the comentary voice...

But they are strange and probably smarter than we give them credit
for. I knew a girl who used to take walks on Portuguese fishing boats.
She said there were piles of freshly-caught still-alive octopuses on
the deck. When you walked past, the octopuses would follow you with
their eyes. She said you could see the expression of resignation an
pleading in their eyes.

Typical example of applying human interpretation to animals...
Not necessairly true interpretation.

In a previous article, Alan Brooks said:
An effective bait for catching octopuses (Fowler discourages the use of
"octopi") is said to be a colorful bit of rag at the end of a fishing line
(cf. John Fowles, "The Magus"), which seems to set an upper bound on this
cephalopod's intelligence.

Yeah, but you're only catching the dumb ones.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
I find that anthropomorphism really doesn't help me deal with hardware all
that much, because it lends a certain attitude of disdain to what would
otherwise be a mere malfunction. -- Carl Jacobs

On Apr 13, 9:00 am, Bill Turlock "Bill Turlock
wrote:

Don't anthropomorphize the octupii, they hate that.
But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it. I suspect that
they are very intelligent. But not intelligent enough to avoid
getting caught.


You only think that because you don't know about the ones that haven't
been caught.

P

Wasn't it Bill Turlock who wrote:

But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it.

I remember seeing something very similar to that, but at no time was the
octopus out of the water. It squeezed through water-filled tubes and
through narrow holes, but never crossed a dry surface.

--
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

Mike Williams wrote:

Wasn't it Bill Turlock who wrote:

But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it.

I remember seeing something very similar to that, but at no time was the
octopus out of the water. It squeezed through water-filled tubes and
through narrow holes, but never crossed a dry surface.


OK, revise that to read, "I not very clearly remember..."

A number of years ago, my next door neighbor worked as an Aquarist at
Sea World (in Orlando, Florida). He told me that this actually
happened there. An octopus was observed leaving it's tank, "walking"
about 5 feet, entering another tank, catching and eating a fish, and
returning to it's tank. As unbelievable as it sounds, according to Sea
World Orlando, this is an established fact. These are indeed very
intelligent animals.

hj


In article .com,
Veronique wrote:

On Apr 13, 1:44 am, "Nehmo" wrote:
There are mentions on the web of an octopus climbing out of a tank,
traveling across a dry surface, going into another tank, grabbing a
fish for a meal, and then returning to their home tank. Some web-
comments say there is a video that was on TV. But I haven't found
anything like it on the web. Is this behavior possible? Is this story
true?


I heard this directly from a curator at the Monterey Bay Aquarium: a
particular mollusk kept being reduced to shells in one tank and no one
couldn't figure out what had happened, although initially the octopus
in the next tank over was suspected. The octopus' tank had a lid and
the lid remained undisturbed, however, so that couldn't be it. A video
finally captured the octopus sliding open the lid of its tank,
escaping to the mollusk tank and having a meal, returning to its tank
*and sliding the lid closed*.


V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep

Wasn't it Haywood Jablowme who wrote:

A number of years ago, my next door neighbor worked as an Aquarist at
Sea World (in Orlando, Florida). He told me that this actually
happened there. An octopus was observed leaving it's tank, "walking"
about 5 feet, entering another tank, catching and eating a fish, and
returning to it's tank. As unbelievable as it sounds, according to Sea
World Orlando, this is an established fact. These are indeed very
intelligent animals.

Well yes, we started from the idea that there are lots of friend-of-a-
friend type stories about this.

--
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Pushmi-Pullyu wrote:

On Apr 13, 9:00 am, Bill Turlock "Bill Turlock
wrote:

Don't anthropomorphize the octupii, they hate that.
But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it. I suspect that
they are very intelligent. But not intelligent enough to avoid
getting caught.

You only think that because you don't know about the ones that haven't
been caught.

I'm reminded of the story about the study conducted on prisoners that
determined that criminals are generally of low intelligence.





--
"We began to realize, as we plowed on with the destruction of New Jersey,
that the extent of our American lunatic fringe had been underestimated."
Orson Wells on the reaction to the _War Of The Worlds_ broadcast.

On Apr 13, 11:09 pm, Mike Williams wrote:
Well yes, we started from the idea that there are lots of friend-of-a-
friend type stories about this.

This thread has reached twenty-something (including one spam) and no
one has provided any video, or anything but hearsay, of an octopus
doing anything except going through a hole and another of fighting a
shark. For now, I'll have to conclude octopuses don't go on nighttime
excursions outside their aquariums.

I was just in a fish (for food) store, and I'm in Kansas, quite far
from an ocean. They had octopus for less than $3/pound. They must be
reasonably prevalent, and there must be people who buy them.
--
(||) Nehmo (||)