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Sydney. The octopus may be smarter than you think. Australian scientists on Tuesday revealed that Indonesian octopuses have been observed carrying coconut shells to use as armor — the first known case of an invertebrate using tools.

Research biologist Julian Finn said he was “blown away” the first time he saw the fist-sized veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, pick up and scoot away with its portable protection along the sea bed.

“We don’t normally associate complex behaviors with invertebrates — with lower life forms I guess you could say,” the researcher said.

Finn and Mark Norman, of Melbourne’s Museum Victoria, observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published on Tuesday in the US journal Current Biology.

The scientists filmed the octopus picking halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies for up to 20 meters and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.

“Things like tool-use and complex behavior, we generally associate with the higher vertebrates: humans, monkeys, a few birds, that kind of thing. This study, if anything, shows that these complex behaviors aren’t limited to us. They are employed by a wide range of animals,” Finn said.

The use of tools is considered one of the defining elements of intelligence and, although originally considered only present in humans, it has since been found in other primates, as well as mammals and birds.

Finn said when he first saw the octopus walk along awkwardly with its shell, he didn’t know whether it was simply a freak example of wacky underwater behavior by the animal.

“So over the 10-year period we observed about 20 octopuses and we would have seen about four different individuals carrying coconut shells over large distances,” he said.

The researchers believe that the creatures probably once used sea shells in the same way. But once humans began cutting coconuts in half and discarding them into the ocean, the octopuses discovered an even better kind of shelter.

The findings are significant in that they reveal how capable the creatures are of complex behavior, said Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville.

“Octopuses have always stood out as appearing to be particularly intelligent invertebrates,” Robson said. “They have a fairly well-developed sense of vision and they have a fairly intelligent brain. So I think it shows the behavioral capabilities that these organisms have.”

Finn said the animals were more vulnerable to predators while carrying the broken shells, which they later used as shelters.

“They are doing it for the later benefit and that’s what makes it different from an animal that picks up something and puts it over its head for the immediate benefit,” he said.

A video of the octopuses in action can be viewed at the Current Biology Web site. (http://www.cell.com/current-biology/)


AFP/AP