Female octopuses are not very patient with males bothering them, given the vehemence with which they hurl objects at them.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himIt seems that the female octopus are not very patient with the males who annoy them, given the vehemence with which they hurl objects at them.
When it comes to getting rid of a harasser, female octopuses seem to have found the winning strategy: throwing objects at them, according to this research. In fact, Australian researchers have observed a common behavior among females of Octopus tetricus living off Sydney (in a region renamed Octopolis due to the great frequency of these animals) for get rid of overly pressing males in courtship.
It is common practice among wild octopuses to throw themselves at objects, at least on this site - explain the researchers. - The animals collect material from the seabed (generally algae, shells and other sediments) thanks to the tentacles and then throw it with an agile movement of the appendix. It is generally the females who have this behavior, while the males are the victims of the launches.
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Throwing objects at other animals is a common practice in the animal kingdom, and there are many reasons for this behavior: it can be done for threat or defensive purposes, but never a species turns objects towards its own kind - as octopuses do. So, to understand why octopuses used to throw objects at each other, researchers at the University of Sydney observed them in action. Using hidden micro cameras, they recorded over 100 snapshots of Octopolis inhabitants throwing objects at their own kind.
Looking more closely at the images collected, the researchers noted that there are two main types of launch. The first has to do with keeping the shelter tidy, throwing away food scraps or other types of waste. The second, on the other hand, seems to have a more precise purpose: this launch is performed almost exclusively by the females, who mainly throw shells towards other octopuses. In 33% of 'targeted' throws, the object hit the target, i.e. the animal - males who have launched into courtship, more rarely rival females. In short, an effective defensive strategy aimed at molesters that has no equal in the animal kingdom.
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Fonte: BioRxiv
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