When scientists first saw an octopus carrying a coconut shell and hiding inside it, they said they “almost drowned from laughing.” Another video recently making the rounds on the internet shows an octopus taking his coconut shell to the next level: transportation.
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.
