They placed the octopus next to a twist-top bottle that holds something the octopus wants. It’s a yummy snack that it would seemingly do anything for. As if that temptation wasn’t enough, they’ve also designed this bottle so that it has a small opening that is just large enough for the octopus to get one of its arms through. Of course, if the octopus reaches in, grabs the snack, and then attempts to pull it out, it simply won’t be able to. That opening is only large enough for the octopus’ arm. So, the octopus can perceive the snack, can touch it, and can taste it, but it is not able to snack on this fish — just yet.
An Intelligent Octopus
The octopus’ handlers perhaps had some guesses about how this octopus might attempt to solve this puzzle, but they were incredibly surprised when the octopus discovered a unique way to gain access to the fish. This is the type of experiment that takes a turn. It’s always quite fascinating when you set out to explore the behavior of an octopus and it reveals its level of intelligence—and strength. The video captures the octopus and provides you with a written description of everything that’s happening throughout the video. You can see as the octopus crawls around its tank and discovers the bottle (which looks like a baby’s bottle) with the fish inside. It approaches the bottle and attempts to unscrew the top as it explores its options. The bottle falls on its side and the octopus continues exploring, finding a way to gain access to the tiny silver fish. The octopus even takes a few steps back to analyze the situation and prepare its plan. It continues tackling the task, never wavering. Then, instead of unscrewing the, it applies a tremendous amount of pressure and rips off the top pacifier part of the bottle. The handlers tried to replicate this action and were only able to outside of the water. When underwater, they were unable to rip off the seal. Although what they wanted was for the octopus to unscrew the bottle, they realized that the intelligent octopus was committed to an outcome and used its unfathomable strength to accomplish its goal.
Up Next, Explore More Surprising Animals:
Watch Octopuses Pull Off Impossibly Good Camouflage In Underwater VideoWatch A Bald Eagle Steal a Fisherman’s Shark in Crazy VideoWatch A Black Bear Casually Relax in A Tennessee Hot Tub
