You may be surprised by the intelligence of an octopus. An average octopus is as smart as your average dog. Did you know that the famous Aristotle thought octopuses were dumb? Well, he was wrong by a lot.
Sometimes, they make their own tools out of shells and coconut husks. Octopuses are good problem solvers and have been able to unscrew a jar with a delicious crab inside . They also can be trained to solve tricky puzzles and mazes . Octopuses have 9 brains . They have one in between their eyes for common use and the other 8 are in their legs. Their legs all have a mind of their own.They also have 3 hearts . One of the hearts pumps blood to the organs and the other 2 pumps blood to their gills. They don’t usually swim because when they swim above the sand in the ocean their heart stops beating. So, they usually stay down close to the sand.
Octopuses come in many colors and sizes.
They are normally a brownish color, but, when they show signs of fear they turn white and when angry they turn red. Octopuses can also turn gray, brown, pink, blue and green to blend in with their surroundings.
The giant Pacific octopus ranges in size between 16 to 30ft. My car is about fifteen feet in length that’s double the size of my car! The smallest octopus is the Star Sucker Pygmy octopus and is the smallest octopus in the world and ranges in size to about 2.5 to 15 centimeters. Surprisingly ,the 600 pound giant Pacific octopus can even fit through a passage the size of a quarter, because octopus have no bones.
There are 300 species of octopus. Some of which have funny names like the Blanket octopus and Dumbo octopus. Another species of octopus is the Blue Ringed octopus. The Blue ringed octopus is very venomous but rarely bites. 1 blue Ringed octopus carries enough venom to kill 26 people in minutes and there is no antidote for its venom. The Blue Ringed octopus lives in the seas of Japan to southern Australia. There is more species of venomous octopuses but their venom isn’t fatally venomous.
I’m glad there is no venomous octopuses in Florida or I’d never go to the beach ever again.
And that concludes