It’s Octopus Week at the Seattle Aquarium, and to kick it off, yesterday they introduced two octopuses to each other for a public courtship. Watch the story from King 5 news.
One of our colleagues here at Pharyngula, Cuttlefish, OM, is apparently somewhat upset at the injustices against certain cephalopods. Be of good cheer! Our plans are coming to fruition, soon, and all the world will be under the tentacle, thanks to global warming and…Science!
You’ve got to be impressed with the cephalopod-butchering skills of this dolphin. Especially be sure to check out the gallery of grisly photos.
I know, I like cephalopods. But I eat them, too!
I just don’t get it.
Everyone start singing now, this is a heartwarming story. Sid is an octopus in the Portobello Aquarium. Sid has the clever octopus habit of escaping — he disappeared for days, and was later discovered hiding in a seawater drain. So what is the aquarium to do with the sneaky fellow?
Isn’t that nice?
(Just because I’m cynical that way, though, I will point out two less happy reasons. They’re going to capture another octopus before they release him, which means Sid is going to have to change his name to Barabbas. The really cynical side of me notes that the aquarium managers also know that cephalopods tend to be short-lived, and they may be thinking that they’ll need to replace him soon anyway, so they’re getting some good PR out of his retirement.)
Everyone and their mother is sending me a link to this flickr set, via Boing Boing, of something called “cephalerotica”. I just don’t know…there are all these clumsy mammals inserted into the art that distract from the erotic part.
And it was just like this story of a man and a squid.
