Curious Octopus

Image from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/21373610.html

How on earth do you disassemble part of that?

National Geographic had a article about a female California two-spotted octopus who disassembled her tank and released 200 gallons of water into nearby exhibits and offices.

There are some signs that octopi are very, very smart and curious. They continuously get into trouble in captivity exploring their tanks (and sometimes leaving their tanks to go next door and eat the neighborly crabs). There was also an instance of an octopus, when offered a slightly spoiled shrimp, stuffing the offending morsel down a drain while maintaining eye contact with the keeper.

However, they also seem to go against some of the general rules about animal brain size. Usually the smarter animals are longer lived and also live together in groups. But octopi only live about a year, and are solitary creatures.

I am of the opinion that the octopi are merely hiding their intelligence from the clueless humans and having a great laugh at all the mazes and brain tests we give them.