“I think a lot of it is probably about the octopus equivalent of ‘personal space’. “We doubt if it’s playful,” Godfrey-Smith said of the behaviour caught on camera. Researchers said the frequent octopus throws “appear to be mildly aggressive” and that this apparent targetting of members of the same species “is a rare form of nonhuman projectile use”, which has only been documented among a handful of social mammals. “We can’t be sure, but we think some hits are probably intentional,” Australian researcher and professor Peter Godfrey-Smith told The Washington Post, adding that they found the wild octopuses used a “jet-propelled throw” to project material through the water – essentially, by releasing the debris from their arms while also creating a powerful jet from the siphon located under their arm web. Once, an octopus threw debris six times at a stationary camera, which researchers said was accidentally placed too close to its den, hitting it twice. On another occasion, a single female threw material 10 times, with half of those attempts successfully hitting a male in an adjacent den who had been attempting to mate with her.Įven the researchers’ camera came under fire.

In one clip, a female octopus threw 17 objects in 60 minutes – hitting other octopuses nine times. Their findings published last week in the peer-reviewed PLoS One journal. They had analysed more than 20 hours of footage from Jervis Bay, off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, from 20, observing 10 octopuses from the octopus tetricus species – also known as gloomy octopuses or the common Sydney octopus. Researchers from the University of Sydney described several incidents of octopuses throwing debris during social interactions, including attempted sexual exchanges, which they said provided evidence that octopuses were targetting each other on purpose. Perhaps out of rage, perhaps to protect their eggs – or possibly because they are seeking the octopus equivalent of personal space. While octopuses have long been known to thrash around underwater, researchers now believe they have video evidence that shows the creatures can not only throw objects – an uncommon behaviour in animals – but may also be capable of deliberately targetting each other. Then, amid a swirl of grey silt, both retreat to their respective dens. The second octopus shrinks away, while the first attacks by raising its arms and shooting a cloud of debris through the water toward it. THE WASHINGTON POST – It looks like a scene from a tense thriller movie – a dark octopus rises from its lair on the ocean floor, sneaking up toward another octopus that lurks, barely visible, nearby among a blanket of shells and algae.

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