Otto the octopus wreaks havoc

[phantom power]

It makes me question whether I should be eating these animals as sushi or in delicious salads.

Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.

...

"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out a the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

"Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-the-octopus-wrecks-havoc.html

[phantom power]

1. and another thing...

Considering that this creature went to the trouble of figuring out how to short out that light, maybe it would have been courteous to consider leaving it off, or dimming it, or something besides just moving it out of his range.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Yes. that would have been a smart thing to do. Can you imagine how stupid he thinks his keepers are

[Ms. Toad]

4. I haven't read the article yet -

but that was my initial reaction to the post - Wake up - he's telling you the light bothers him!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Humans are under the delusion that they are the only "intelligent" life on this planet.

Someday it may come to light that we are the least intelligent inhabitants on this planet, and we were merely created to be caretakers for all the other smarter creatures. And, we are doing a horrible job of it..

[HereSince1628]

6. Um, just sayin...not it, but Otto has come to light.

Zoologists have know for a long time that Cephalopods are pretty brainy invertebrates with excellent eyes.

[opihimoimoi]

5. OCTOPUS seems much smarter than Sarah or Bush...definitely smarter than McPain

[Indenturedebtor]

7. Does no one but me see this for the THREAT that it is?!?!?!

"A spokesman said: "It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work."

Um HELLO! Giant intelligent homicidal Octopii?!?

What's next? We're going to find out that this Aquarium is next to a Nuclear Reactor, or a toxic waste dump???

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

[pokerfan]

8. Paryngula has some great comments on this

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/11/uppity_octopus.php">Uppity octopus

[sakabatou]

9. Lolz

Otto remind me of this guy: