When a person advances towards another for romantic or sexual purposes, it is often said that “throws trash“. On the other hand, when two couples argue, they are also said to “throw things at each other’s heads”. These are two very similar expressions that are used in very different contexts. Nonetheless octopuses could carry out a curious fusion of both, in which “junk” remains of shells, silt and algae.
And this behavior has been observed for years: octopuses throw objects of this type at other octopuses. It is not uncommon to see animals throwing objects at each other, usually with defensive purposes. But usually they tend to throw them at other species. For this reason, the case of the octopus is considered a very curious case, which has been more deeply studied several times.
One of the most comprehensive studies in this regard was carried out a year ago and recently published by researchers from Australia, USA and Canada. And that was very interesting, because there was something in it that other scientists had not noticed before: most of the cases females throw “garbage” at males they got a little heavy. The good part is that the males didn’t get angry. The bad news is that the study does not specify whether they managed to crush them.
When octopuses drop gear
In this recently published study GoPro Cameras in Octopolis, an octopus settlement built in Jervis Bay, Australia. Thus, they observed 101 ejections of shells, silt and algae, of which 90 were made by women and only 11 by men.
In all cases the steps were more or less the same. Octopuses they took the garbage with their tentacles and, with the help of a jet of water launched from siphon, pushed her towards another octopus. Siphons are anatomical structures present in the body of all cephalopods, as well as other marine molluscs. They consist of a kind of tube through which water is ejected, helping them in such processes as movement, feeding or breathing. In this case, it seems that he, too, intervenes in defense.
And according to this study, although there were a few cases of females throwing objects at other females, it was mostly males who had previously tried to mate. Therefore, it seems that they are throwing dishes at octopuses, which behave too similar to octopuses.
Other hypotheses
Although the most common hypothesis is drive away too heavy octopuses, there are two more options. One of them, which is actually combined with the initial one, is that clean their lairs. That is, on the one hand, they remove dirt from their holes in the form of shells, mucus and algae. And, on the other hand, they protect themselves from heavy octopuses with the same mud. Circular economy.
Other scholars, however, say that throwing dirt is actually a kind of tantrum for alleviate disappointment. The main argument for this hypothesis is that some octopuses have been observed to appear to throw objects without any purpose. Just run to run.
But among the 100 cases analyzed last year, 33% answered correctly in another octopus. And many of the times they missed were more of an aiming problem than a clear lack of intent. In fact, another study from 2016 analyzed the situation of a woman who threw objects at the same man a total of 10 times over a period of time. 3 hours 40 minutes. For his perseverance, her perseverance.
In short, it is impossible to be sure what is the reason why octopuses also throw away trash. But it seems that their reasons are in some ways not so different from ours.
Source: Hiper Textual
