Octopuses are extraordinary and fascinating animals and one of the most intelligent of all invertebrates. Scientists are increasingly producing evidence that they are sentient creatures. Yet they are given little or no legal protection from suffering. But, at last, that is starting to change.
Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish are a type of animal called cephalopods. A new law governing the use of animals in experiments in the EU will, for the first time, provide some protection for these animals in the same way as for vertebrate animals such as monkeys and mice. And about time too.
Fascinating creatures
So what do we know about these illusive animals of the sea? Well, a few interesting basic facts: there are over 300 known species of octopus, they have four pairs of arms and three hearts!
The challenging environment in which cephalopods live and their lifestyle means that they need to be capable of complex and flexible behaviours. For example, as they are active predators octopuses need to explore, remember their environment and understand the behaviour of other animals including their prey.
It is therefore not surprising that studies have shown that octopuses easily learn new things, simply by observing other octopuses. They can also solve problems they would not encounter in the wild such as unscrewing the lid of a container to get at prey inside.
Tool users
One of the most interesting recorded natural behaviours of octopuses is their use of tools. Researchers only recently observed veined octopuses in Australia using halved coconut shells as tools, by scooping them from the seabed, carrying with them and later using them as a shelter when needed. This is the first reported case of tool use by an invertebrate animal.
Scientists have also found that octopuses show signs of having individual personalities. They have also been reported to play with ‘toys’.
Pretty impressive eh! Well, that’s not all...
Thwarting predators
Common octopuses have a wide array of techniques they use to avoid or thwart potential predators. If there is a place to hide they can squeeze their soft bodies with no internal or external skeleton through impossibly small cracks and crevices where predators can’t follow. Or they can choose to jet off at speed by expelling water through their mantles. They can also improve their chances of escape by obscuring an attacker’s view and dulling its sense of smell by releasing a cloud of black ink.
If all else fails, they have beak-like jaws which can deliver a nasty bite, and venomous saliva which is mostly used for subduing prey. Even if a predator manages to bit off one of their eight arms they can re-grow it later with no permanent damage!
Shape-shifters
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about octopuses is their ability to change themselves. They can hide simply by disappearing from view. Using a network of pigment cells and specialised muscles in its skin, the common octopus can almost instantaneously match the colours, patterns and even textures of its surroundings. Predators such as sharks, eels and dolphins swim by without even noticing it.
One octopus species has taken this ability to change itself to a different level. The aptly-named mimic octopus doesn’t simply pretend not to be there, instead it changes its body shape and pretends to be other, dangerous, animals!
Time to protect octopuses
The more we learn about these fascinating, complex and adaptable creatures the more you can’t help but admire them and their amazing abilities. It is also becoming increasingly clear that they are highly intelligent and sentient beings which should be legally protected in the same way as vertebrate animals.
OneKind works to improve laws in the UK and other countries to give octopuses and other cephalopods the legal protection they deserve and need. As an important first step, cephalopods will be given some protection when EU countries incorporate the new EU Directive on ‘the protection of animals used for scientific purposes’ into their national laws by January 2013. Let's hope this is just the start.