Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Australian scientists find coconut-carrying octopus

World Dec. 15, 2009 - 03:10PM JST ( 11 )

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11 Comments

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numbskullDec. 15, 2009 - 04:19PM JST

I have often heard about the intelligence of the octopus, so this comes as no real surprise. I always feel sorry for them as they are often killed on Japanese TV for food, despite the fact that they don't taste good and its like chewing on rubber.
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TumbleDryDec. 15, 2009 - 04:42PM JST

numbskull: this is a question of taste...
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smithinjapanDec. 15, 2009 - 06:57PM JST

numbskull: I agree personally that it doesn't taste all that great and has a bad texture, but I also agree with TumbleDry that that is a matter of taste.

Anyway, pretty interesting article, and phenomenon.
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TheQuestionDec. 15, 2009 - 10:54PM JST

I took the cowards way out and wiki'd this one. After reading into it a little it turns out that this is a lot more interesting than it appears. To take and exerpt, "The exact extent of their intelligence and learning capability is much debated among biologists, but maze and problem-solving experiments have shown that they do have both short- and long-term memory. Their short lifespans limit the amount they can ultimately learn. There has been much speculation to the effect that almost all octopus behaviors are independently learned rather than instinct-based, although this remains largely unproven."

Which would indicate that this particular octopus learned how to do it itself rather than learning from watching another. Most interesting.
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adaydreamDec. 16, 2009 - 12:00AM JST

I was watching this news story on TV this morning. It was pretty neat. They have long been considered genius creatures. < :-)
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zurcroniumDec. 16, 2009 - 12:02AM JST

Octopus pick up line . . . Thats a lovely bunch of coconuts you have there.
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yabitsDec. 16, 2009 - 12:25AM JST

The average octopus, with just two coconut shells per tentacle, could make a sound effect resembling a stampede.
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usaexpatDec. 16, 2009 - 01:31AM JST

Are you sure they weren't just sitting around having a few and thought this would make a funny story for the science papers?
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numbskullDec. 16, 2009 - 08:34AM JST

TumbleDry: this is a question of taste...

People always say that, but it fails to explain why don't eat your neighbors or stray cats and dogs. They might all taste great. You don't know until you try...