It’s World Octopus Day, which is fitting for the eighth day of a month called October.
It’s a day to highlight the threats the octopus faces, plus a chance to celebrate just how talented and clever they are.
You could say sometimes they’re even a little too clever.
The best example is an octopus named Otto, who lived at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany.
In the fall of 2008, when Otto was about six months old, aquarium staff had to deal with a big electrical outage.
The next night, another outage. And the night after that, the system went out again.
Staff figured out that the problem wasn’t any of the electrical equipment: it was Otto.
There was a big spotlight over his tank, and staff concluded that the octopus didn’t like it.
So he figured out how to climb onto the rim of his tank and spray water at the light until it went off.
The aquarium staff moved the light out of Otto’s reach, so he didn’t accidentally put other creatures in danger during another outage.
They also started offering the octopus more mental stimulation; they thought maybe he was bored in his tank.
They gave Otto a chessboard, which he seemed to enjoy for a while… at least until he threw the board out of the tank.
At other times he rearranged all the stuff in his tank, or threw stones against the walls of the tank, damaging the glass.
And then there was the time that Otto picked up the hermit crabs that lived in his tank and started juggling them (!)
So maybe the issue wasn’t just that the mind of the octopus was sitting idle, but that he was using that mind to do his own thing.
There are a lot of cases where researchers set up experiments but the octopus decided instead to break the apparatus, or spray water at the scientist, or even escape the tank after hours to steal food.
Or there was an octopus at the Seattle Aquarium who kept destroying everything in her tank.
The staff eventually named her Lucretia McEvil.
Starting today in Westfield, New Jersey, it’s AddamsFest.
The hometown of cartoonist Charles Addams is celebrating his famous fictional family with Addams-style murals, haunted house decorating, a creepy masquerade ball, cemetery tours and a selfie spot in front of the floating Addams house on a local pond.
And this year’s festival theme is Femme Fatale, a tribute to Morticia Addams.
The Story Of An Octopus Named Otto (NPR)
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