Do Not Mess With Fish 82!

and you thought fish were fun!

well not technically a fish but a fishy story about octopuses, scientists studied more than 20 of the eight-legged creatures in Indonesia, watching how they made use of the discarded shell halves thrown into the sea by humans, the animals did much more than simply crawl under a convenient shell, they collected coconut halves of the right size, stacked two together, and transported them under their bodies over distances of up to 20 metres,

'There is a fundamental difference between picking up a nearby object and putting it over your head as protection versus collecting, arranging, transporting (awkwardly), and assembling portable armour as required,' said Dr Mark Norman, from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the research is reported today in the journal Current Biology, 'Ultimately, the collection and use of objects by animals is likely to form a continuum stretching from insects to primates, with the definition of tools providing a perpetual opportunity for debate,' the scientists wrote,

well lets go back to 1980 when I was still at work, albeit with a little to much time on our hands we trained 'Ollie' below, to unscrew a container in order to reach inside for a treat,

the problem, is it a left or right hand thread?

lid unscrewed, reach in for the prize,

pull out the clam,

let go of the lid, retire to enjoy the meal, well done Ollie, it was a year later that one of the pet octopuses at home laid some eggs which hatched, so for a few days we had 50 or so baby octopi walking (to young to swim) around the aquarium, sorry that the pictures are a bit dark, but I decided not to tamper with them.