Diver shot an incredible footage of two octopuses fighting. The brawl lasts for almost a minute before the larger specimen overpowers its rival, killing it with a bite from its fearsome beak before dragging its lifeless corpse away into the darkness.
6 days old, already more than 8000 views on youtube !
is it cannibalism ?
Many sources talk about cannibalism. The dailystar use for example the title: “INCREDIBLE footage shot by a scuba diver shows the moment an octopus killed and ate its rival during an underwater fight to the death”.
To me, the video is not crystal clear: the larger octopus definitely uses its beak to administer the final blow, but after that it seems more likely that its transports the dead corpse. If you watch closely, the corpse is located at the tips of the tentacles, not inside the octopus’ mantle. So not cannibalism.
In [most] cases, the predator octopus was much bigger […]. Once captured and dead, the prey was transported to the den which in turn was plugged with stones of different sizes. The predator began to eat its victim by the tips of the arms.
So even if we didn’t witness actual cannibalism, the act could have happened afterwards.
Is cannibalism disgusting/pure barbarism ?
In our case, I would definitely say no. It is actually very intelligent and down-the-earth. Indeed: 1) the other octopus is already dead anyway, 2) octopuses are higher per-gram in protein than mussels, 3) opening mussels and capturing other small preys is tricky and energy consuming.
So it seems logical not to let the corpse drift on the floor for someone else to eat, but to eat it oneself. Right ?
Man though you know what makes me sorta sad is when nerdy, “quiet” kids latch on to me during camp and they just talk and talk and talk about a thing they’re into (Skyrim, Pokemon, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, dinosaurs, whatever). And I see the kids just light up when they say something and I can chime in with an ‘oh hey, are you talking about [x]? I love that thing! Tell me more about it.’
Like, their parents will warn me ‘so-and-so is pretty quiet and hard to engage’ but no, man, just listen, your kid is so smart and so into This Thing, they’ll engage like fuck and talk your damn ear off it you let them. Frame it in their damn terms. Or! Just! Listen to them about their Thing! And they will engage with the rest of the material! Because they know you care about them! Amazing!!!
Quiet kids are usually that way because either no one listens, or there is always someone more dominant speaking wise in their group that always talks over them and then they give up. Some quiet kids are starved for attention and really really want to talk, but don’t always get the chance to
