Octopuses are extremely intelligent creatures. They are so intelligent that some people even believe that octopuses are aliens. And now these curious creatures have done something more surprising: they’ve built entire octopus cities off the coast of eastern Australia.
These cities seem surprising not only because of their creation, but also for the way they have changed what we know about octopuses. First of all, these tentacled creatures were previously believed to live alone, and even when talking about two octopuses meeting for the first time, jokes were made about whether they would mate or try to eat the other.
But with this new discovery, scientists have found that octopuses are not only able to build their own small cities, but are also likely to group together in the ocean. The researchers who made the discovery say the octopuses used rock ledges and piles of shells to build their little cities.
Octopuses shape their cities using piles of shells. The protrusions and other features of the seafloor in these two areas are likely what made these octopus cities possible, the researchers say. The first field was observed in 2009 in Jervis Bay, an area off the east coast of Australia. This area was described in a 2009 article.
The scientists who discovered it named the area Octopolis and found that there are at least 16 different animals interacting with this place. Later, another place called Octlantis was discovered just a few hundred meters away. A total of 13 full octopus dens were seen in this area, and ten more that were empty at that time were found.
Researchers dived into octopus cities using GoPro cameras to record footage. While filming one day, they recorded about 10 hours of footage and watched residents interact with each other. This highly intriguing discovery helps show how little we know about the wildlife that sees the oceans as their home.
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