Octopus Behavior Essay

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Bio-inspired inventions are relatively new inspirations to modern engineering. However, humans have been mimicking animals for thousands of years. For example, ancient humans routinely would imitate animals’ hunting patterns to find reliable sources of food. The application of animal inspired inventions today has been applied to important roles in conservation, military, and societal needs. One creative example of an invention inspired by an organism is a robotic jellyfish developed by the U.S. Navy. This root can assist teams on underwater rescue missions, provide data about the deep ocean, and help navigate ships and submarines. The robotic jelly is said to be “as malleable as tin foil and as resilient as rubber,” and runs on hydrogen from…show more content…
One well documented study of octopus behavior was conducted by researcher Jeffrey Hays. The research was conducted on forty-four red octopuses and three test conditions were observed on each octopus over a two-week period. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether octopuses had personalities and temperaments without manipulation of their behavior. The first stimulus was opening the tank lid, second was touching the octopus with a brush, and third was feeding the octopus a crab. Each condition was observed and recorded among every octopus with the response to the touch of a brush being the most diverse. Some octopuses hid at the instant of the researcher being within sight, while others barely moved while being stroked by the brush. The research team found nineteen distinct responses over the total three stimulus tests. Due to the variation among the reaction of the octopuses to the same stimuli, researchers concluded that red octopuses exhibited temperaments and personalities not manipulated by the stimulants in the experiment. Their conclusions were partly supported by other mollusks that hunt, rest, and avoid predators in a comparably similar way to others of their own species. However, octopuses have been observed to react to the

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