For the past 50 years, Jim Phillips has been collecting shed antlers, having a total of around 14,500. In cold climates, antlers shed yearly. He displays them in a 30 x 64 foot building which he constructed specifically for this purpose.
Zoologger: Octopus makes own quicksand to build burrow on seabed
by
Agata Blaszczak-Boxe
Species: The southern sand octopus (Octopus kaurna)
Habitat: The seafloor on the south-eastern coast of Australia
The southern sand octopus has taken hide-and-seek to a whole new
level. It shoots jets of water into the seafloor creating quicksand that
allows it to vanish.
A skilled architect, the octopus can build a mucus-lined home –
complete with a chimney –20 centimetres down into the seabed, where it
holes up during the day. It only emerges from its underground burrow at
night to crawl over the seafloor and snack on small crustaceans.
Now, its unique burrowing technique has been revealed for the first time…
…a species of “Rice Coral” (Montipora spp.) which is native to the Indo-Pacific region. Its range extends from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, through the Indian Ocean to Japan, the East China Sea, Australia and the west and central Pacific.M. aequituberculata
is typically seen on the upper parts of reef slopes, where it is often one of the predominant species. Like many other coral species,
M. aequituberculata
possesses zooxanthellae from which it obtains most of its nutritional needs.
Although it is listed as least concern M. aequituberculata (like many other coral species) faces threats due to habitat destruction and rising sea temperatures which can cause coral bleaching.
My buddy read an article about octopus intelligence. It was feeding time, and the handler dumped some shrimp into an octopus’ tank. Then he went into another room and sat at his desk.
A while later, a shrimp was tossed onto his desk.
The octopus, upon finding one bad shrimp in the lot, had grabbed it, escaped its tank, crossed the hall, and threw the expired shrimp at its caretaker. Not only does this showcase their problem-solving capabilities, but also that it could have escaped at any time. It just broke out this time to chuck an off shrimp in indignation at its handler. That’s not just intelligence, that’s a human-like reaction. Kinda make you wonder exactly how smart these guys can be…
OH MY GOD
I went to the aquarium once and we had a tour and we walked past the octopus tank and it was duct taped shut so I asked why and the guy was like. “Well, we had a problem before because these fish were disappearing randomly at night and we had no idea why. Turns out the octopus had memorised the night guards rounds and would creep out of its tank, crawl across the floor to the fish tank, have a little snack and be back in its own tank with the lid shut before the guard came back.” they are super smart
I love octopuses so, so much.
@_@
I am both delighted and FUCKING TERRIFIED.
Once I went to the aquarium where they had a baby pacific red octopus in a tank. I had gone there to work on a few real life sketches, obviously I wanted to do one of an octopus. So I kinda just kneeled in front of the tank, and started sketching. The octopus didn’t mind, he sat happily. Then, 5 minutes later, he started moving to the front of the tank, where I was. This tiny octopus faces me directly and starts posing. I don’t know how other to explain it but he started curlung his tentacles in this really graceful way then wouldn’t move for a few minutes. Then again, a new pose. That tiny cute motherfucker knew I was drawing him.
