Octopus Intelligence

[Guest guest]

Intelligent Octopus

 

In high school biology we were taught that mammals are the

smartest animals and that vertebrates are smarter than

invertebrates. This isn't always true. The octopus is an

invertebrate but very intelligent. It's brain is organized

differently than that of mammals, but through convergent

evolution, reaches a surprising level of intelligence.

 

Ananova - Octopus learns to open jars of seafood

Address:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_748630.html?menu=

 

 

 

" The rich white man, with his overconsumption of

meat and his lack of generosity for poor people,

behaves like a veritable cannibal--an indirect

cannibal. By consuming meat, which wastes the

grain that could have saved them, last year we

ate the children of the Sahel, Ethiopia and

Bangladesh. And we continue to eat them this

year with undiminished appetite. " - by R. Dumont,

was quoted in HOW THE OTHER HALF DIES by Susan George

and requoted on page 341 of THE HERETIC'S

FEAST, A HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM by Colin

Spencer. London, Fourth Estate, 1993.

[Guest guest]

Yes, isn't that fascinating. Aside from this discovery

in a lab, all one must do is to encounter one of these

creatures personally to experience how marvelously

intelligent they are... not to mention beautiful and complex.

 

Dave likes personal stories, so here is my octopus one...

 

 

I used to live on this beach area in Hawaii and I had a

favorite tidal pool where I would hunt for shells and just

commune with the ocean. One day, I had this distinct

feeling I was not alone and being watched. I searched

the water between waves crashing over the lava rocks

for the source of this awareness. Spotting an octopus

isn't easy! *lol* Between the sun glare on the water's

surface and their incredible ability to camoflage themselves,

it is almost impossible unless they move. I did eventually

spot him. I sat every still and we looked into eachother's

eyes. It was perfectly magickal. I don't know how long I sat

there with him; time stopped meaning anything. I longed

to share it with another person, and eventually I broke

away and went to fetch my mother in law, who was walking

the beach about 50 yards away.

 

When I was able to get her attention and walked her back to

the tidal pool, I saw him again and pointed him out to her,

or tried. Like I said, they are difficult to see, and she wasn't

quite tracking where I was pointing. Anyway, apparently

my insistant pointing to him had caught the attention of

some local fishermen who were casting their nets out off

the edge of the lava rock shelf that formed the wall of my

tidal pool area. They came running over quickly to see what

I was pointing at, and before I knew what was happening

they snatched that beautiful creature out of the water and

bashed its body against the rocks with sickening sticky

thwaps! My heart leapt to my throat and I became ill. I have

never fainted before, but I nearly did just then. It was aweful.

At the time of this event I was a pesco-pollo vegetarian, but

after that event, I never ate tako sushi or any other octopus

again.

 

Sometimes it takes something like that to wake one up; to

make one stop thinking about them as seafood and start

viewing them as sea-LIFE.

 

~ PT ~

 

I feel we are all islands -- in a common sea.

~Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001)

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~~~~>

, " anthocyanin5 " <

libanios5@h...> wrote:

> Intelligent Octopus

>

> In high school biology we were taught that mammals are the

> smartest animals and that vertebrates are smarter than

> invertebrates. This isn't always true. The octopus is an

> invertebrate but very intelligent. It's brain is organized

> differently than that of mammals, but through convergent

> evolution, reaches a surprising level of intelligence.

>

> Ananova - Octopus learns to open jars of seafood

> Address:

> http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_748630.html?menu=