Friday Octopus Blogging

Some of you may remember the classic videos "octopus escaping through a one-inch hole," "octopus unscrewing a jar," or perhaps the chilling "octopus eating a shark" so you know how wily the cephalopods can be (hmm...should someone invent a cephal-iPod for octopus videos?). Anyway, an aquarium in Germany has found that Kierkegaard's statement "boredom is the root of all evil" is certainly true of its own eight-armed denizen:

Otto the octopus wreaks havoc

A octopus has caused havoc in his aquarium by performing juggling tricks using his fellow occupants, smashing rocks against the glass and turning off the power by shortcircuiting a lamp.
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"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

"Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.

An octopus that juggles...now that is evil!