Current Biology
Volume 19, Issue 23, 15 December 2009, Pages R1069-R1070
Journal home page for Current Biology

Correspondence
Defensive tool use in a coconut-carrying octopus

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.052Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Summary

The use of tools has become a benchmark for cognitive sophistication. Originally regarded as a defining feature of our species, tool-use behaviours have subsequently been revealed in other primates and a growing spectrum of mammals and birds [1]. Among invertebrates, however, the acquisition of items that are deployed later has not previously been reported. We repeatedly observed soft-sediment dwelling octopuses carrying around coconut shell halves, assembling them as a shelter only when needed. Whilst being carried, the shells offer no protection and place a requirement on the carrier to use a novel and cumbersome form of locomotion — ‘stilt-walking’.

Cited by (0)