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…
The battling octopi “use a sort of inverted jet propulsion” to chuck the shells, videographer Peter Godfrey-Smith explained. They gather up projectiles in their many arms, and then shoot water out of their siphons to give their throws some added oomph.
While Victor Huang was free-diving in the waters off the coast of New Zealand he encountered an octopus that took a liking to his shiny new waterproof camera. The cheeky cephalopod turned out to be a kleptopus as it immediately snatched the camera out of Huang’s hand and swam away. But that was just the beginning of their shared undersea adventure. Watch this video, shot by both human and octopus, to learn the entire story:
