Otto the octopus didn’t appreciate the spotlight shining on his laboratory tank at night. So he turned it off. In fact, he turned off the lights in the whole lab.
Octopuses are smart and curious. They use tools and learn from watching other octopuses. They can solve mazes, open the lids of glass jars, and build dens.
In the lab, they learn to tell people apart. They’ve been known to take a disliking to some of the lab workers, squirting jets of water at them when they walk by. And they can show a clear preference for the people who feed them.
It’s been 100 years since people discovered the existence of the colossal squid, known by its scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, when a scientist found pieces of two huge squids in a sperm whale’s stomach. Although several (mostly dead) specimens have been collected since then—including one weighing over 1,000 pounds in 2007—scientists have never managed to film one of these creatures in its natural habitat. That changed this year when researchers captured video of a baby colossal squid near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.
