Female octopuses and male harassment (lighthearted)

[nettie434]

I saw this report of a study about octopuses on Twitter. Apparently female octopuses throw silt, shells and rocks at male octopuses when they don't appreciate male octopuses attempts at courtship!

twitter.com/weatherindia/status/1438452494275948544?s=21

I knew octopuses are meant to be quite clever but I did not realise that they could do this.

(Please don't tell me the plural of octopus is octopi. That's not correct as the word is Greek, not Latin, in origin so if we were being pedantic it would be octopodes. As we're not, octopus follows the usual rules for plurals in English

[Pudmyboy]

That is great, they are so smart! I remember a story of one which used a paint lid as a shelter, carrying it underneath whilst moving then whipping it upright to hide behind when resting. (Note the clever avoidance of single/plural terminology!)🐙

[ErrolTheDragon]

Jet propelled projectiles.... her 'no' means no!

Some female squid may use a more subtle approach to repel unwanted advances

www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/for-diguise-female-squid-turn-on-fake-testes

But male cuttlefish are the rather literal embodiment of duplicity:

www.livescience.com/21374-cuttlefish-gender-bending-disguise.html

[RadicalFern]

I love octopuses (and also love that form of the plural), and I really enjoyed seeing those videos! Sometimes I wish I could throw rocks at unwanted males so it was nice and cathartic...

[justmetoday]

Theres a movie on netflix called my octopus teacher. Its pretty amazing.

[WhereYouLeftIt]

"[themaleoctopuses] remained courteous throughout, however, as no instances of males retaliating by tossing things back at the females were observed."

Or maybe because they knew there'd definitely be no shag if they did? Or they can't throw for toffee? Or does 'courteous' mean they were still trying to court the female rather than they were just being polite?

I can but hope that octopuses will not be too affected by climate change, we do need an intelligent species to take over the planet when we wipe ourselves out.

[ChattyLion]

Highly recommend watching My Octopus Teacher

[Soubriquet]

A female dragonfly will pretend to be dead to stop males from pestering her

[CandyLeBonBon]

@WhereYouLeftIt

"[themaleoctopuses] remained courteous throughout, however, as no instances of males retaliating by tossing things back at the females were observed."

Or maybe because they knew there'd definitely be no shag if they did? Or they can't throw for toffee? Or does 'courteous' mean they were still trying to court the female rather than they were just being polite?

I can but hope that octopuses will not be too affected by climate change, we do need an intelligent species to take over the planet when we wipe ourselves out.

There's probably a male octopus sub-Reddit somewhere where rejected octopuses are all complaining about being put in the 'friend zone'

[Doomscrolling]

Octopuses are miracles. The more we learn about them the more amazing we discover them to be.

To reproduce they have to turn their digestive tract off, so they slowly starve to death and can't live to see the next generation. So nothing is taught, each animal works it out for itself. Just extraordinary.

[Kotatsu]

To reproduce they have to turn their digestive tract off, so they slowly starve to death and can't live to see the next generation. So nothing is taught, each animal works it out for itself. Just extraordinary.

Christ, if they ever work a way around that we're definitely screwed.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

Mumsnet never disappoints me! Always something fascinating I wouldn't hear about anywhere else.

[LoveFall]

My Octopus Teacher has caused to never want to eat octopus again. What an amazing creature. So sad they have such a short lifespan.

[CandyLeBonBon]

@Doomscrolling

Octopuses are miracles. The more we learn about them the more amazing we discover them to be.

To reproduce they have to turn their digestive tract off, so they slowly starve to death and can't live to see the next generation. So nothing is taught, each animal works it out for itself. Just extraordinary.

Yeah. When I hear about that, it made me so sad!!

[CandyLeBonBon]

@LoveFall

My Octopus Teacher has caused to never want to eat octopus again. What an amazing creature. So sad they have such a short lifespan.

Same

[ANameChangeAgain]

They're amazing. I love them even more now that I know the females are kick ass feminists.
I love your footnote too @nettie434