How do octopuses live? Curious facts about octopuses. Marriage games at a distance

The most incredible things happen to these animals. American zoologist Paul Barch says: once fishermen caught an octopus. They wanted to boil it and eat it. The octopus was small - about half a meter long. Then they realized that he pretended to be dead. They put him in a cauldron and lit a fire under the cauldron.

The cook was away for a short while. He returned and lifted the lid of the cauldron to taste which octopus came out of the stew. The cauldron was empty, that is, there was water in it, but there was no octopus in it.

Found it on the roof of the house.

When it became hot in the cauldron, the octopus lifted the lid of his dungeon. He went up the chimney to the roof. He climbed out through the pipe, like a real chimney sweep, and stopped in thought only in front of a new obstacle - the air element, which suddenly opened up in front of him.

When octopuses travel on land, they take a piece of the sea with them. Water is stored in the mantle cavity, tightly locking all entrances and exits from it. The supply of oxygen dissolved in this water is enough for the musk octopus, for example, to breathe on land for four hours. Frank Lane says that ordinary octopuses, thrown to the bottom of the boat - they were going to cut them for bait later - lived without water for two days!

The opinion of researchers about the speed with which octopuses move on land cannot be called unanimous.

According to one observation, the octopus crawls along the ground, breaking about eight yards (430 meters per hour) in a minute. Others argue that the octopus runs even faster - a person with a quick step seems to be catching up with it with difficulty.

My same own experience tells me that the octopus is hardly able to move on land at all.

However, it may be, as the Soviet researcher believes cephalopods N. Kondakov, different types octopuses have an unequal ability to walk on the ground. The octopuses, which will now be described, obviously belonged to other species, more mobile on land than those that I had to observe.

Thacker Abbott, an American zoologist, in a book about molluscs, described the adventures of an octopus that escaped from an aquarium in Bermuda. The octopus himself lifted the lid of the pool in which he was held captive, went down to the floor, went out onto the veranda and headed towards the sea. He hobbled along the ground for about thirty meters and was attacked by hordes of ants.

Fishermen in the English Channel caught a small octopus along with the fish and threw it on the deck. Two hours later they remembered him, began to search and found him in ... a teapot that stood in the wheelhouse. The octopus climbed up the ladder to the captain's bridge and, of course, could not overcome his natural craving for dishes.

“Guy Gilpatrick,” write Cousteau and Dumas, “tells how one octopus was set free in the library. He began to run up and down the shelves, throwing books on the floor; it was obviously a belated revenge on the writers!”

Gilpatrick himself describes this adventure somewhat differently. He brought a bucket of octopus to the library to show his buddies. While waiting for them, he became interested in reading. Suddenly he hears a noise: the octopus, of course, got out of the bucket, hobbled along the floor - a kind of lame little dwarf! - and began climbing the shelves with books. With difficulty he reached the third shelf and stood exhausted in front of a thick volume. It can be seen that the octopus-climber overstrained himself - he turned pale and suddenly collapsed dead on the floor.

An octopus brought to land always knows unmistakably which side the sea is.

It crawls towards it with such "straightness" that, according to some observers, it would rather pass through a burning fire that it met on the way than deviate two steps from its chosen course. What sense shows him the right path - the sense of smell or the perception of the infra- and ultrasonic noises of the sea, unknown to us? While this is not clear.

Akimushkin I.I. Primates of the sea. Ed. 2nd. M., Thought. 1974, p. 44 -45.

Octopuses, eight-legged and surprisingly intelligent Marine life have a knack for interior design. These creatures, as wild nature, and in captivity, decorate the space in front of the entrance to their homes. They often settle in rocky caves and from there hunt their prey - molluscs, crabs, scallops, shrimps and other crustaceans.

After eating their victims, they sprinkle the remains - shells of mollusks and skeletons of crabs - on the ground in front of the entrances to their caves. They also sometimes crawl along the bottom in search of beautiful shells. Octopuses are masters of disguise, but divers use these decorations to track them down.

Polina Kormshchikova

10 amazing facts about octopuses

1. Octopuses have three hearts: one (main) drives blue blood throughout the body, and the other two - gills - push blood through the gills.

2. Octopuses are able to perceive infrasound. They also hear ordinary sounds, despite the absence of ears.

3. Octopuses are able to throw off the tentacle, breaking it on their own in case of danger, just like lizards throw off their tail.

4. Octopuses breathe with gills, but being out of water for a long time does not cause them serious harm.

5. Octopuses have rectangular pupils.

6. A frightened octopus turns white, an angry blushes.

7. Octopus testicles are located in the head.

8. Octopuses are considered by many zoopsychologists to be the most “intelligent” among all invertebrates in many respects: they can be trained, they have good memory, distinguish geometric figures- a small square distinguishes from a larger one; a rectangle set vertically from a rectangle set horizontally; a circle from a square, a rhombus from a triangle. They recognize people, get used to those who feed them. If you spend enough time with an octopus, it becomes tame. Excellently trained.

9. Octopuses are clean: they “sweep” their dwelling with a jet of water from a funnel, and put the leftovers outside in a garbage heap.

10. In some countries (eg Japan), octopuses are eaten alive. They are cut into thin pieces and eaten for several minutes while the tentacle muscles continue to convulse.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

When breeding, the tentacle of the argonaut octopus, having captured the sperm, swims away by itself to look for a female

It turns out that octopuses are much smarter than expected - their limbs react to pain and touch even after separation from the body, and these are not post-mortem convulsions, but full-fledged reflexes.

Speaking of this creature, one can imagine a pear-shaped mollusk with tentacles instead of arms. The octopus is very similar to the squid, and is its relative. He does have tentacles that replace his arms. In addition, he has a different body shape, which resembles an elongated pear with tentacles.

suckers

Thanks to the suction cups, the octopus can grab any animal. On his body there is another important adaptation, a wonderfully developed sharp jaw, which looks like a bird's beak.

Octopus Features

The main feature of this predator is poison, which slowly kills the victim, paralyzing it. It also poses a danger to humans. From scientific facts the bite site is known to swell and itch a lot. The victim develops weakness throughout the body, chills and dizziness. This condition can last for a very long time and lead to lethal outcome if the person is not provided with proper medical care. There are very few such cases, but they do exist. Therefore, it should be remembered that the octopus is dangerous, both for animals and for people.

The body structure of an octopus

The octopus has 8-10 tentacles with suction cups that replace its arms and help it hunt. All of them have nails and suction cups, which is also undoubtedly a plus. These creatures have excellent eyesight, have poisonous glands, and they see even in the dark. Due to one unusual device, the octopus can stay on the surface of the water for a long time. Helps him in this "bag for storing water."

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These mollusks have the property of regeneration. If an octopus loses a tentacle, it will grow back after some time. Amazing, isn't it? Therefore, no predators are afraid of him.

"Searchlights" of an octopus

Having the ability to change color, the octopus is difficult to spot against the background of stones or a sandy bottom. And of course, one of the main features - spotlights. Naturally, we are not talking about searchlights on ships and stadiums, but about natural ones. These are spots on the skin glowing at night, which help him move under water, where it is always very gloomy.

In science, there are about 100 species of octopuses, but all of them are not large, not long. more than a meter. Only a few species are really large. These are the common octopus, the Doflein octopus, the Apollo and the Hong Kong octopus. All of them have a length of three to 4 meters, and weigh about 25 kilograms.

Interesting fact, but octopuses considered the most intelligent invertebrates. In addition to their ability to remember and repeat the behavior of other animals, they easily learn to use various adaptations to protect themselves from predators.

At octopus not one but three hearts! One of them - the main one, supplies blood to all vital organs. The other two, called gills, drive blood through the gills, enriching it with oxygen. Wherein blood octopuses - just think! - blue!

When the octopuses realize that their life is boring and meaningless, they become depressed and begin to consume their own tentacles.

Octopuses are able to open jars with screw caps and corked bottles containing food. For example, a female Atlantic giant octopus who participated in one of these experiments opened a childproof jar in just 5 minutes!

Interesting Octopus Fact #4

During the breeding season, the male octopus develops from the third tentacle penis, which falls off after mating and grows only when the male is again ready to conquer women's hearts.

Just like chimpanzees, dolphins or crows, octopuses are endowed with a sufficient amount of intellect to use different devices. Scientists have noticed that octopuses are able to pick up halves coconut and collect from them a reliable shelter from predators.

In ancient times, the very sight of octopuses seemed so terrible to people that they endowed mythical monsters their features. Gorgon Medusa borrowed tentacles from octopuses, which eventually transformed into snakes. And the Hydra, defeated by Hercules, had features similar to octopuses.

Octopuses or octopuses are one of the most amazing animals. For example, they have blue blood, thanks to which they can be ranked among the aristocrats of the underwater world.

"I just want to eat"

Octopuses in both ancient Greek and Slavic languages got their name from the words "eight" and "foot", which meant them main feature- eight tentacles. But that's not the only thing that makes octopuses amazing creatures.

For example, an octopus has three hearts and testicles are located in its head. He is an excellent camouflage, he can pretend to be a flounder, sprawled at the bottom. Able to change color. Moreover, as a person, he blushes in anger, and turns pale with fear. Due to the lack of bones, it can squeeze into the narrowest gap. And running away, it releases streams of ink - a dark liquid produced by special glands. Some species of octopuses are able to move on land, pushing off with tentacles. Their most spectacular ability is the ability to fool a predator, leaving him one of his tentacles to hide with seven others. For an octopus, this is not a problem; soon a new one will grow in place of the lost limb.

Scientists consider octopuses to be one of the most intelligent inhabitants of the sea. For example, researchers who observed the behavior of Pacific striped octopuses were amazed at how they behave with their prey. They, before inflicting a fatal blow with their beak, seem to pat the victim on the shoulder with a tentacle, as if to say: “Sorry, brother, nothing personal. I just want to eat." And the mating process of striped octopuses is accompanied by an analogue of human kisses.

For a long time there was a belief that octopuses have hypnotic abilities. Even ancient divers noticed how an octopus first stares at a crab or spiny lobster, and then it falls dead. And although modern scientists have found that some species of octopuses are able to kill victims by touching them with their tongue and at the same time poisoning them with poison secreted from salivary glands, yet the supernatural abilities attributed to these mollusks have entered the legends.

Tangaroa and the Kraken

Many peoples living by the sea deified the octopus, believing that it was he who was the ruler sea ​​depths capable of creating a whirlpool and pulling a ship with people to the bottom.

Among fantasy lovers, the most famous deity in the form of an octopus is Cthulhu, created by the fantasy of the writer Howard Lovecraft, the lord of the worlds, sleeping at the bottom Pacific Ocean, but capable of influencing the human mind. However, the literary deity had a prototype - the Polynesian god of the sea Tangaroa, whom the Polynesians represented in the form of a giant octopus.

But the most terrible incarnation of giant octopuses for Europeans, of course, was the kraken. For many centuries, sailors in taverns told terrifying stories about the attack of monsters that emerged from the abyss and drowned entire ships, entangling them with their tentacles. Homer was the first to describe the kraken in his poem. During the famous journey of Odysseus, knowing that sea ​​monster Scylla can grab only six people at a time, saves the ship at the cost of the lives of six of his comrades, who were devoured by the monster. In ancient Greek legends, Scylla is nothing more than a kraken.

True, there are two versions as to who the kraken was - giant octopus or squid (however, they are quite close relatives and have many similar features). And skeptics doubt that octopuses of such strength and power actually existed. It is believed that the largest octopus was caught in the United States in 1945, its weight was 180 kilograms, and its length was more than eight meters. However, a scientific description of an octopus was found in the archives, thrown out in 1897 on the beach of St. Augustine in Florida. It weighed about six tons and had tentacles 23 meters long. So it is possible that in ancient times there were still individuals large sizes, and terrible kraken was reality.

Fight with a man

There are many stories about how octopuses grabbed people in the water and tried to drag them to the depths. But most of those that have come down to us have a happy ending. An octopus will easily drown a person only if he is unconscious. On each of its eight "arms" there are about 240 suction cups, that is, there are almost two thousand of them in total, each of which has a holding force of about 100 grams. Thus, if an octopus grabs a person with all “hands”, then its maximum strength will be about 200 kilograms. But in reality, not all suckers are involved in holding prey. Therefore, a person is able to escape from the embrace of an octopus. In addition, most of the lucky ones who got out of the fight with the octopus alive had a knife with them, with which they cut off the tentacles that stuck to them.

In 1938, Charlie Edwards was testing a new diving suit he had designed with a copper helmet. When Edwards was walking along the bottom, he disturbed the octopus, and he attacked him out of fright. The octopus wrapped itself around the helmet and closed Edwards's view, but he could not peel it off. Then Charlie decided that retreat would save his life. He slowly, in weighted shoes, made his way almost blindly to the shore and came out onto land with an octopus clinging to his helmet.

And yet, probably, often the fights end in favor of the octopuses. One of the most mysterious stories about treasure hunters off the coast of Colombia. In the 20th century, a sunken Spanish schooner with silver ingots was discovered lying at a depth of 64 meters. Seven divers tried to get to the valuables lying in the hold of the ship, partially covered with sand. All of them mysteriously disappeared in the depths of the sea. locals no doubt that the divers were victims big octopus who chose the schooner as a home.

There were also people who said that they also tried to raise Spanish silver, but, having met at a depth with a terrible octopus, whose huge tentacles waved ominously in the water, and square pupils looked unkindly at the diver, they preferred to get out of the water. The famous American diver Harry Riesberg decided to check these stories. He found the ship's hull covered with sand, and next to it he found the skeleton of a dead diver with a diving helmet on his head and in a torn wetsuit. This did not stop Reesberg, he made several more dives and managed to penetrate into the belly of the ship. And there he had a strange feeling that someone was watching him. Harry began to move the lantern from side to side and found that a large octopus blocked his escape route. In The Gold of Lost Ships, Reesberg wrote, "The demonic eyes of this vampire seemed to follow my every move." The fight between the diver and the octopus turned out to be just epic. Harry cut off three tentacles of the octopus with a knife, and then met with him in close combat and plunged the knife into his neck vein. But he also suffered.

Concerned about the lack of a diver, his comrade went down to the bottom and found Harry unconscious and bleeding in the arms of a dead octopus. Then he raised it to the surface, which saved Riesberg's life.

Poison handsome

The blue-ringed octopus, which lives off the western shores of the Pacific Ocean, is one of the most poisonous animals in the world. It fits in the palm of your hand and is very beautiful when phosphorescent blue rings shimmer over its body. This attracts people who take it into their hands and thereby sign their own death warrant. The venom of these octopuses is stronger than that of a snake. Their bite itself is painless, but after three minutes the effect begins to be felt - the person is dizzy and hallucinations appear, then he falls into a stupor, and death occurs in an hour. The bite of this cephalopod is fatal in 80% of cases. Moreover, the beak of the blue-ringed octopus is so sharp that it pierces the crab shell, and therefore it is not difficult for him to pierce the clothes on a person. And the amount of tetrodotoxin poison that he injects through a bite at a time is enough to send seven people to the next world. And at the same time, these octopuses themselves pose a danger to humans even after their death.

And once, about 100 residents of the coastal village of Mahung in Vietnam ate poisonous octopuses, thinking they were eating squid. The consequences of this meal were terrible. Two eaters died, 85 landed in the hospital, the rest were limited to gastric lavage.