Octopi are both fascinating and scary creatures.
We’ve known how these magnificent water inhabitants have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. They can squirt black ink to get away from their predators and make a great escape.
They can also camouflage themselves with their surroundings.
This skill comes in handy for so many purposes. For one, they do so to hide from their predators. Or they do so to pretend they’re not around, then creep up behind a prey.
They also do this during mating.
Octopi are also smart creatures.
There were studies along with some recordings that octopi can do some things like humans can.
Various experiments showed how an octopus, when presented with a screw-top jar with food inside, can open it so they can get the food inside.
However, one study found that octopi are doing something strange.
University of Sydney Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith has been studying and teaching Biology and Philosophy of Mind.
He and his team of researchers focused a study on the behavior of octopi located at Jervis Bay in Australia, otherwise called “Octopolis.”
They discovered that octopuses like to throw shells and silt at other octopuses.
This behavior is not unusual since octopi do it when they clear the area to make a den. However, what made it unusual is that they are targeting their very own.
While other animals throw things, they do so at another animal not of their kind.
The researchers later found that the octopus who was doing the throwing was female.
This happened when a male octopus was trying to advance on her, probably trying to mate.
She throws some shells and silt at him to ward off his unwanted and uninvited sexual advances.
That’s some strong feminism right there, and we’re all for it.
Professor Godfrey-Smith also noticed that her aim is pretty good, hitting the male octopus 33-50% of the time.
It was only when the male octopus started to anticipate the hits that he could dodge them. Other than that, her aim was pretty good.
But how can they tell if she was really trying to hit him?
For the years their team has been observing octopi behavior, they can spot some small but telling differences in an octopus’s way of throwing things. This is how they can tell its intent for that behavior.
They noted one would throw shells and silt when they just wanted to clear the way.
They observed that they shoot things between the two front tentacles. Most of the time, they do it aimlessly.
However, when targeting another octopus, they do something different.
They propel the shell or silt with its siphon, but they angle their hit from the two front tentacles as if aiming or targeting something.
At times they don’t siphon. They fling it like throwing a frisbee at their unwanted mate.
See the intense octopi fight caught by the Professor’s team in the video below!
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