Octopus Steals Crab from Fisherman | Super Smart Animals | BBC Earth

This is Steve... a crab fisherman. The basics are simple. Put some bait in a pot... let it sink... sit back... and wait for crabs to wander in. Steve know that most crustaceans aren't known for their IQ. Once inside the trap, they haven't got a clue how to get out. The exit is obvious enough to us, but some animals just aren't born with much in the way of brains But why does the seafloor here look like a crab graveyard? Well, there's another crab fisherman living down here in this cave... and it's a much more creative one than Steve. The animal living here shouldn't really be a problem. Its closest relatives are slugs, snails and clams. It's a giant Pacific octopus... an animal with one huge advantage... an enormous brain. Taking body size into account, only those of birds and mammals are bigger. Two thirds of those brain cells, or neurons, are actually in its tentacles and it uses them all to approach the problem of crab poaching. Plan A is to smother the prey. With the metal trap in the way, that's not too successful. But that huge brain helps the octopus to get creative and to think up a dramatically different strategy. Once inside there's an easy meal. But this could be its last. Breaking in was easy... but the octopus can do something crabs find impossible A sure sign that an octopus has struck, a trail of empty shells... and a frustrated fisherman. What can I say? These creative problem-solving skills set octopus apart from all other invertebrates.

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 20,385,782

Rating: 4.5290508 out of 5

Keywords: octopus steals crab from fisherman, octopus eating crab, octopus, smart octopus, octopus eating, giant pacific octopus, super smart animals, smart animal, crab, bbc, nature, animals, wildlife, wild, poaching, fishing, crab pot, invertebrates, escape, crustacean, steal, bbc documentary, bbc earth

Id: abRPaXgJGQg

Length: 3min 35sec (215 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/OctopusFunFacts]

It looks like you're interested in everybody's favourite cephalopod. Did you know that a 2007 study found that octopuses are able to solve mazes, suggesting they have the abilitity to conditionally discriminate (a form of complex learning)?

This bot was created to share the remarkable complexity of the cognitive lives of octopuses. If you have any comments or suggestions, please reply to this comment

[u/Hyena_Gold]

super smart but missed a crab on the outside of the cage 1:48.

[u/thelazarusledd]

You could say its fake video xD.