People Share The Most Incredible Things Octopuses Have Done And We May Have Underestimated Their Intelligence
In nature, octopuses only live in waters full of salt. But that doesn’t mean these cephalopods are salty themselves. Tumblr users have been sharing wholesome stories about octopus’ intelligence, and a whopping 790K people have liked their thread on the social platform so far. The love for this smart animal is spreading, and you’ll fall for them after reading the octopus facts as well. However, it’s worth mentioning that even though most researchers know lots about the natural habitat of the octopus and do their very best to recreate it for a great setting, being able to observe these intelligent animals in a controlled environment is extremely difficult. New settings alter their behaviors too much for them to be credible. And despite how cool they are, you shouldn’t get an octopus as a pet. They already have a brief life span, and being in captivity can create nervous system problems for them. It also stresses them so much that they often stop eating. Now that we’ve got that out of the way scroll down and enjoy the stories on octopus’ intelligence and mischief!
Image credits: Bernard DUPONT
Many people quickly fell in love with these geniuses
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Bored Panda taught me never to mess around with octopuses and crows because they're smarter than you
In the first post: The octopus also recognized the specific human that had offended it. Not bad for #1 a totally different species. #2 The weird angles that it would have been seeing from.
I would s**t myself if an octopus came sauntering in and threw a shrimp at me.
I live in a small town in South Africa. Kroonstad in the Free state province. About 100km from us is an even smaller town, Parys. Just outside Parys, next to the road is giraffe. Each time a car stops there, the giraffe will also "strike a pose". He would turn his head, or lift the one leg, again the other one. Sadly the last few times we drove passed there, he was no where to be seen. Don't know what happened to him, but I miss the guy standing next to the road.
I have never underestimated the intelligence of an octopus! I've read about Chtulu. We don't stand a chance. Beware ._.
All I can think is of the poor guy when LITERAL TENTACLES slide up onto his desk. I wouldn't sleep for weeks.
Octopi are building their own robots as tools to take over the world. ♥
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Time to try and find a way to expand their lifespans I think. Would be awesome to see what they can do with more time.
They are amazing, but have you seen them "walk"? I never knew they could that as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mQ15yoZvTU
The lifespan, mentioned multiple times in the article but never defined. :P Google says 6-8 months for a dwarf, 3-5 years for a Giant Pacific. There are probably other kinds but this is an idea, at least.
I wonder if that's their lifespan in captivity, or also goes for their natural environment? The answer may have been in the article oh, but I don't remember reading it.
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Once I was at an aquarium with my friend and while we were looking at the octopuses he said "I hate these things." One of the staff spun around at him and said "Respect them. They've been on this planet before us and they'll probably be on it after us. The revolution is nigh."
Once, when I was pretty young, my mother and I discovered a baby octopus on the beach. It was grasping onto a rock. There were seagulls nearby, and we chased them off. Mom carefully picked up the rock, and gently tried to encourage it to let go. She mentioned offhandedly about how she'd never enjoyed eating octopus, and I swear, the little thing looked freaked out. I told it that we weren't going to eat it, we just wanted to help it back into the water. ... It let go. I said bye-bye and mom gently tossed it back into the water. From that moment on, I realized that octopuses (of all different kinds) are SMART.
Sometimes I think that octopuses are in fact aliens who came to earth to study humans, but didn't realize our environments weren't compatible, so they just hung around and stayed sea-bound. I mean, they are just such remarkable, intelligent, adaptable creatures, and so... alien.
I heard something about how their DNA is so different from anything else, so they're pretty much as alien as you can get on earth. I really don't think they should be classified as 'Mollusks'.
Load More Replies...
Wow!! This is a little crazy! Are they considered smarter than dogs? That's what I want to know
I adore all octupi! I refuse to eat them despite my love for Japanese and Mediterean cuisine. Viiva the Octupi!
I loved this article so much. I don't eat sea food AT ALL and I always got a weird feeling in th pit of my stomach when folks would say "Oh I love eating those" .... it's like pork, even though I love bacon (YUM) I feel bad about that habit because Pigs are smarter than most other four legged animals. We don't eat dolphins in most areas of the world as we respect them for their intelligence and their helpfulness when times get weird for us landlubbers when we are stuck out in the ocean but octopi are fair game? Hmmmm!
We currently have an octopus at our zoo who’s started disassembling his tank out of boredom. He also baits you. He lures you in with one little arm like he’s just a docile little thing, and then when you get close enough, he swarms you with all the rest of his arms. Pretty sure he’s not trying to eat us or anything, he just likes to wrestle a lot. A couple days ago he spit the equivalent of a large bucket of water in my face. There’s never a boring day with him.
Read the book "Soul of an Octopus" and prepare to be amazed!!! There are also fascinating notes about other fish and sea creatures in the book. Don't stop if it seems to technical at first; the book is about several octopuses and the people who loved them. Awesome. Written by a writer-naturalist.
what is the plural for octopus?? is it octopuses or octopi?
Here is the really puzzling bit. Along with their incredible intelligence, they can morph their bodies into any shape, texture, color to camo themselves. No other living thing can do this. Scientists are now asking, "Are E.T.s already here?? Right on our ocean floor???"
Regarding the comment that they're anti-social, I recently read an article where they gave the drug Ecstasy to octopuses in an experiment and it made them react kind of like humans do on the drug. Here's a link if you want to read it: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45600372
They've also been recorded passing a toxic fish back & forth like a joint, and appearing mellow...
Load More Replies...
I just literally the other day watched an awesome documentary on how smart the octopus really is and I was so amazed! The puzzles they were solving were puzzles even chimps couldn't successfully figure out. The authors argued that the octopus may just be the smartest animal next to us. I can't possibly fit everything I learned on here but if you're interested just look up octopus documentary on YouTube. So. Smart.
Humans as a while underestimate all animals intelligence and awareness. Too infatuated with controling or eating them to consider.
That video is the coolest yet most terrifying thing I have ever seen...
Shouldn't the title of the post be octopi (Or however u spell it) not octopuses... (correct me if I'm wrong tho haha)
Although it is often supposed that octopiis the ‘correct’ plural of octopus, and it has been in use for longer than the usual Anglicized plural octopuses, it in fact originates as an error. Octopus is not a simple Latin word of the second declension, but a Latinized form of the Greek word oktopous, and its ‘correct’ plural would logically be octopodes.
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I seem to remember a documentary that said Octopi are very smart at problem solving and can open jars or lock mechanisms, but they have no memory and have to re-learn to open jars again the next day. Can anyone confirm this ?
They remember but due to the fact that females die after laying eggs, they aren’t able to pass that knowledge on to their offspring. Each generation of octopuses needs to learn from scratch. Hope this answers your question :)
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I eagerly await the arrival of our octopus overlords. I think I have a new favorite animal. Also, 200th up-vote!
The octopus is probably the most impressive sea creature alive!! Really impressive and, mostly of the time, really pretty!
Could somebody explain to me why foul language is so widely used and accepted in today’s society? I hate it!
Words are words. Why anybody has the right to decide which words are foul is beyond me.
Load More Replies... 
Look at the comment section. Many people hadn't known about this before they read this article.
Load More Replies...
Bored Panda taught me never to mess around with octopuses and crows because they're smarter than you
In the first post: The octopus also recognized the specific human that had offended it. Not bad for #1 a totally different species. #2 The weird angles that it would have been seeing from.
I would s**t myself if an octopus came sauntering in and threw a shrimp at me.
I live in a small town in South Africa. Kroonstad in the Free state province. About 100km from us is an even smaller town, Parys. Just outside Parys, next to the road is giraffe. Each time a car stops there, the giraffe will also "strike a pose". He would turn his head, or lift the one leg, again the other one. Sadly the last few times we drove passed there, he was no where to be seen. Don't know what happened to him, but I miss the guy standing next to the road.
I have never underestimated the intelligence of an octopus! I've read about Chtulu. We don't stand a chance. Beware ._.
All I can think is of the poor guy when LITERAL TENTACLES slide up onto his desk. I wouldn't sleep for weeks.
Octopi are building their own robots as tools to take over the world. ♥
Load More Replies... Time to try and find a way to expand their lifespans I think. Would be awesome to see what they can do with more time.
They are amazing, but have you seen them "walk"? I never knew they could that as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mQ15yoZvTU
The lifespan, mentioned multiple times in the article but never defined. :P Google says 6-8 months for a dwarf, 3-5 years for a Giant Pacific. There are probably other kinds but this is an idea, at least.
I wonder if that's their lifespan in captivity, or also goes for their natural environment? The answer may have been in the article oh, but I don't remember reading it.
Load More Replies... Once I was at an aquarium with my friend and while we were looking at the octopuses he said "I hate these things." One of the staff spun around at him and said "Respect them. They've been on this planet before us and they'll probably be on it after us. The revolution is nigh."
Once, when I was pretty young, my mother and I discovered a baby octopus on the beach. It was grasping onto a rock. There were seagulls nearby, and we chased them off. Mom carefully picked up the rock, and gently tried to encourage it to let go. She mentioned offhandedly about how she'd never enjoyed eating octopus, and I swear, the little thing looked freaked out. I told it that we weren't going to eat it, we just wanted to help it back into the water. ... It let go. I said bye-bye and mom gently tossed it back into the water. From that moment on, I realized that octopuses (of all different kinds) are SMART.
Sometimes I think that octopuses are in fact aliens who came to earth to study humans, but didn't realize our environments weren't compatible, so they just hung around and stayed sea-bound. I mean, they are just such remarkable, intelligent, adaptable creatures, and so... alien.
I heard something about how their DNA is so different from anything else, so they're pretty much as alien as you can get on earth. I really don't think they should be classified as 'Mollusks'.
Load More Replies... Wow!! This is a little crazy! Are they considered smarter than dogs? That's what I want to know
I adore all octupi! I refuse to eat them despite my love for Japanese and Mediterean cuisine. Viiva the Octupi!
I loved this article so much. I don't eat sea food AT ALL and I always got a weird feeling in th pit of my stomach when folks would say "Oh I love eating those" .... it's like pork, even though I love bacon (YUM) I feel bad about that habit because Pigs are smarter than most other four legged animals. We don't eat dolphins in most areas of the world as we respect them for their intelligence and their helpfulness when times get weird for us landlubbers when we are stuck out in the ocean but octopi are fair game? Hmmmm!
We currently have an octopus at our zoo who’s started disassembling his tank out of boredom. He also baits you. He lures you in with one little arm like he’s just a docile little thing, and then when you get close enough, he swarms you with all the rest of his arms. Pretty sure he’s not trying to eat us or anything, he just likes to wrestle a lot. A couple days ago he spit the equivalent of a large bucket of water in my face. There’s never a boring day with him.
Read the book "Soul of an Octopus" and prepare to be amazed!!! There are also fascinating notes about other fish and sea creatures in the book. Don't stop if it seems to technical at first; the book is about several octopuses and the people who loved them. Awesome. Written by a writer-naturalist.
what is the plural for octopus?? is it octopuses or octopi?
Here is the really puzzling bit. Along with their incredible intelligence, they can morph their bodies into any shape, texture, color to camo themselves. No other living thing can do this. Scientists are now asking, "Are E.T.s already here?? Right on our ocean floor???"
Regarding the comment that they're anti-social, I recently read an article where they gave the drug Ecstasy to octopuses in an experiment and it made them react kind of like humans do on the drug. Here's a link if you want to read it: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45600372
They've also been recorded passing a toxic fish back & forth like a joint, and appearing mellow...
Load More Replies... I just literally the other day watched an awesome documentary on how smart the octopus really is and I was so amazed! The puzzles they were solving were puzzles even chimps couldn't successfully figure out. The authors argued that the octopus may just be the smartest animal next to us. I can't possibly fit everything I learned on here but if you're interested just look up octopus documentary on YouTube. So. Smart.
Humans as a while underestimate all animals intelligence and awareness. Too infatuated with controling or eating them to consider.
That video is the coolest yet most terrifying thing I have ever seen...
Shouldn't the title of the post be octopi (Or however u spell it) not octopuses... (correct me if I'm wrong tho haha)
Although it is often supposed that octopiis the ‘correct’ plural of octopus, and it has been in use for longer than the usual Anglicized plural octopuses, it in fact originates as an error. Octopus is not a simple Latin word of the second declension, but a Latinized form of the Greek word oktopous, and its ‘correct’ plural would logically be octopodes.
Load More Replies... I seem to remember a documentary that said Octopi are very smart at problem solving and can open jars or lock mechanisms, but they have no memory and have to re-learn to open jars again the next day. Can anyone confirm this ?
They remember but due to the fact that females die after laying eggs, they aren’t able to pass that knowledge on to their offspring. Each generation of octopuses needs to learn from scratch. Hope this answers your question :)
Load More Replies... I eagerly await the arrival of our octopus overlords. I think I have a new favorite animal. Also, 200th up-vote!
The octopus is probably the most impressive sea creature alive!! Really impressive and, mostly of the time, really pretty!
Could somebody explain to me why foul language is so widely used and accepted in today’s society? I hate it!
Words are words. Why anybody has the right to decide which words are foul is beyond me.
Load More Replies... Look at the comment section. Many people hadn't known about this before they read this article.
Load More Replies...
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