By: JJ G

Scientists recently processed over twenty hours of footage where octopuses threw shells, debris, and silt at Jervis Bay, Australia. The team of researchers that studied the behavior has published their findings today in Plos One. These rare actions have only been seen with chimpanzees, elephants, and birds.

This happened because Jarvis Bay has many rich resources that attract octopuses. Scientists at the University of Sydney saw these rare actions from the octopuses while studying animals in Jarvis Bay. This team caught the octopuses because they were curious how octopuses acted, so they put a camera where there were a lot of octopuses underwater and caught octopuses throwing debris at each other.

The team saw as they looked at the footage that the female octopuses would throw things at the males most of the time. All the octopuses mostly threw silt out of all the choices of silt, debris, and shells. Also, the octopuses’ physical appearance mattered. For example, the octopuses with darker skin were more likely to throw things more often and forcefully than the white octopuses.