Octopus snatches coconut and runs

Awesome and funny. I've heard that an octopus is as smarter than a dog... woah .... deja vu. I  believe they are intelligent because I saw, personally, an octopus squirt a jet of water several feet across a room. He targeted the face of a college kid who several minutes before had taunted him.

The video below is a surprising example of complex behavior, planning ahead, and tool (portable armor) use:

Museum Victoria scientists have discovered an octopus that collects, stacks and transports coconut shells to use as portable armour.

An octopus and its coconut-carrying antics have surprised scientists.

Underwater footage reveals that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team says it is the first example of tool use in octopuses.

One of the researchers, Dr Julian Finn from Australia's Museum Victoria, told BBC News: "I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time."

He added: "I could tell it was going to do something, but I didn't expect this - I didn't expect it would pick up the shell and run away with it."

Quick getaway

The veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed between 1999 and 2008 off the coasts of Northern Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia. The bizarre behaviour was spotted on four occasions.

The eight-armed beasts used halved coconuts that had been discarded by humans and had eventually settled in the ocean.

Dr Mark Norman, head of science at Museum Victoria, Melbourne, and one of the authors of the paper, said: "It is amazing watching them excavate one of these shells. They probe their arms down to loosen the mud, then they rotate them out."

After turning the shells so the open side faces upwards, the octopuses blow jets of mud out of the bowl before extending their arms around the shell - or if they have two halves, stacking them first, one inside the other - before stiffening their legs and tip-toeing away.

Dr Norman said: "I think it is amazing that those arms of pure muscle get turned into rigid rods so that they can run along a bit like a high-speed spider.

"It comes down to amazing dexterity and co-ordination of eight arms and several hundred suckers."

via BBC News - Octopus snatches coconut and runs.

Here are a few more videos:



Okay, so you think your dog could open a jar? Perhaps.



Could your dog investigate different sized containers and find a way to fit inside to get the food? Perhaps.

But there is no way your dog can do anything anywhere as cool as this:



Look at more of the clip:



Add the "ink spray" to throw off pursuers and making yourself look bigger with a large eye spot (bluffing).