Did an Octopus Throw a Spoiled Shrimp at Its Handler?

In 2013, a Tumblr user responded to an animated GIF of an octopus escaping an enclosure through a narrow hole by describing an anecdote they had heard from a friend about how a disgruntled octopus once threw a spoiled shrimp at its handler: My buddy read an article about octopus intelligence. It was feeding time, and the handler dumped some shrimp into an octopus’ tank. Then he went into another room and sat at his desk. A while later, a shrimp was tossed onto his desk. The octopus, upon finding one bad shrimp in the lot, had grabbed it, escaped its tank, crossed the hall, and threw the expired shrimp at its caretaker. Not only does this showcase their problem-solving capabilities, but also that it could have escaped at any time. It just broke out this time to chuck an off shrimp in indignation at its handler. That’s not just intelligence, that’s a human-like reaction. Kinda make you wonder exactly how smart these guys can be… The user included the following video in the comment:   Although the video is real (it was filmed by a marine biology student named Raymond Deckel at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences in…
Read More