From Cape Town’s kelp forests to debates over hunting and sharks, human relationships with wildlife are reshaping conservation across South Africa.
Articles on Octopus
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A newly discovered fossil suggests octopuses up to 19 metres long may have hunted in Cretaceous seas.
Batteries are typically held together by chemicals that don’t easily degrade. However, some marine animals have evolved remarkable natural ways to attach themselves to wet, slippery surfaces.
Climate-driven shifts in ocean and atmospheric dynamics underpin these recent blooms in octopus numbers in UK waters.
Animal welfare laws don’t protect invertebrates, but there’s evidence that some, such as octopuses, are as intelligent as many mammals – even if their cognition takes very different forms.
Scientists thought fish might simply be freeloading off the hard work of a hunting octopus. Now, it looks like it’s a true team effort.
Did the enormous West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse the last time global temperatures were 1.5°C above preindustrial levels? The answer lay in the DNA of an octopus.
Thousands of pearl octopuses were discovered in 2018 lining thermal vents near a deep-sea volcano. Researchers now know why octopus moms gather there.
Octopuses are enigmatic beings whose experiences of industrial farming are likely to be profound.
Ranging from 12 to 22 centimetres, these tiny octopus are extremely venomous and found all over Australia. Here’s what to do if you see someone get bitten.
With nine brains, blue blood and a talent for camouflage, the octopus is one of the most fascinating creatures in the sea.
Slow progress may be better than none at all for animals living in the UK.
Octopus build cities, establish hierarchies and show social group behaviours. Domesticating will mean creating a new kind of octopus, with ecological and ethical implications.
A proposed new large-scale octopus farm in Spain is a huge risk to the welfare of this sentient and intelligent animal.
The fossil is the oldest known vampyropod to date.
Octopus, crabs, prawns demonstrate clear signs of emotion, such as pain and ‘anxiety-like’ behaviour.
They can open jars, use tools, remember instructions and attack on command. But they’re still not the smartest cephalopod in the sea…
In the red corner is the octopus with eight muscular, hyper-flexible arms. In the blue corner is the bird with killer vision and two sharp claws for catching prey with incredible speed and precision.
Colour-changing patterns in snoozing octopuses are characteristic of two alternating sleep states.
If octopuses simply started evolving a smarter brain, what stops them from ruling over humans? Why has this not happened already? An expert explains what these cephalopods might be capable of.
Top contributors
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Research Fellow in Comparative Psychology, University of Cambridge
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Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University
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Lecturer and Researcher in Behavioural ecology and Cephalopod Biology, Anglia Ruskin University
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Professor, Macquarie University
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Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
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Professor of Philosophy, London School of Economics and Political Science
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Associate Professor and Marine Ecologist, Adelaide University
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Professor of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University
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Adjunct Research Associate, Monash University
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PhD Researcher in marine and behavioural ecology, University of Wollongong
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Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of Oxford
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Honorary Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen
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Toxinologist; Senior Research Fellow, Australian Venom Research Unit, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney
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Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney