"Carol Buckley and the Hohlwein mob need to look into this. It sounds suspiciously like the "post traumatic stress syndrome" that they use to patch their mistakes with elephants."
Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.
The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.
A spokesman said: "It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.
"It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.
"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."
Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realized we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.
"Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants."
Courtesy of Miss Kitty
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3 comments:
i've heard old-timers tell similar stories about elephants with above average intelligence and low tolerance for boredom. truth or urban legend? the only thing i know is that if this octopus did all this, this octupus is smarter than i knew octupuses could be. maybe somebody should recycle the great crocodile tank and hire somebody to battle an octupus in the center ring. (the octupus almost HAS to do as much as the alligators and crocodiles did, i don't remember hearing that they started biting fingers off until the act was moved out of the water)
Henry,
I don't know if I by into "above average intelligence and low tolerance for boredom." I think elephants just like tearing things up because they can, like many animals with the proper equiptment. They have the tool(trunk) and size like, like a primate has hands and an opposable thumb.
I am really having to "stretch" to accept this story also. We often times find reasons for what an animal does by looking at them through our eyes. It is like the person who is shocked because you may disagree. They just assumed everybody thought like them. LOL
Wade
wade - i agree about the story itself. until now, i never heard of an octpus doing anything but swimming around or whatever they normally do -- i never heard about anything to indicate that they had personalities tio make their like a member of the family
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