Octupus walking

vjrose

Recently there have been a whole spate of videos with Octopus doing some really cool walking, here's a link to a video of one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHwUW1inDCs
There are a bunch of cool videos. This one is my favorite, an octopus with his mobile home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN6c5yWJhQ

As a biologist I could present a lot of evidence on intelligent species but I am curious how you all feel in general about other species so here's my question below.

Mankind really needs to reevaluate what constitutes an intelligent species, how do you feel about intelligent species that are not humans?

vjrose

Wow, couldn't spell octopus in the topic title, sorry about that guys, no coffee when I wrote that.

LabRat529

I am now in love with Octopuses (or is it Octopi?). Thanks I will now be wasting countless hours watching video of these critters and it's all your fault.

I don't have any problem with the concept that there are other intelligent creatures besides man. In fact, if I hadn't been "called" in another direction, I would probably be an animal behavioralist. I get all nerdy over these types of things.

Dolphins amaze me. Have you read the articles about them using tools? They'll pick up a sponge in their beaks and use it to scoot along the ocean floor. The sponge protects their noses from rays. The scooting scares up fish. SOOOO cleaver!!

I'm also interested by the idea of what constitutes intelligence? We humans tend to associate intelligence with memory retention, problem solving, etc... but could their be other types of intelligence that applies to non-human critters?

Dory_42

Considering how much a snake is able to do without any limbs, I have to consider them pretty clever!! They find, catch, kill and consume their prey, climb trees, hide inside or underneath items, remove their skin... Have you ever thought what you would be capable of if your arms and legs were not available to assist you do everything you normally do?

vjrose

Most excellent, and I actually do like snakes and have watched a boa reason out how to get to a prey item. Dolphins are amazing and many scientists believe they are at least or more intelligent that chimpanzees.

kenzietea

I posted this the other day, I found it so fascinating. Recent research has shown how intelligent they actually are as well. It kind of makes me want a pet octopus =P

Kirsty_UK

I think it's really very hard to define intelligence. Once of the researchers where I work has done a lot of work with crows that use tools.

http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/data/crow/

there's a video in there