In your face! Times eight! Ouch!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying…
Question: Who’s crueler than a kid playing dodgeball?
Answer: an octopus!!
Peter Godfrey-Smith and the University of Sydney watched the violence from the sidelines.
They analyzed twenty hours of octopus footage! These eight-armed bullies were seen throwing silt, shells, and algae. They even use their powerful siphon to propel objects forward.
So who are they hitting? Over half of the throws happened within two minutes of an interaction with another octopus. And about a third of them actually HIT another octopus!
It seems like these mollusks are capable of making TARGETED throws. More research is needed to figure out why they do this.
So next aquarium trip, forget the splash zone. Duck and cover!!
Reference: Godfrey-Smith, P., Scheel, D., Chancellor, S., Linquist, S., & Lawrence, M. (2021). In the Line of Fire: Debris Throwing by Wild Octopuses. BioRxiv, 2021.08.18.456805. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.18.456805