Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/octopus-litter/

There is no doubt that octopuses are clever. They are well armed when it comes to survival in the wild and have been proven, by multiple studies, to be extremely intelligent. And with the continuous rise of pollution, octopuses have found multiple ways to make use of the garbage that is littering our oceans.

In a recent study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, researchers used crowdsourced, underwater images to analyze how octopuses use the litter they find on the seabed. They documented how octopuses, despite being already known to use artificial shelters for decades, have increased their usage of garbage as shelter. And although we like to think of the repurposing of garbage for something beneficial like shelter as a good thing, the study suggests that the use of litter could have some negative effects as well.

From the 261 photos the researchers used, they were able to identify 24 species of octopuses interacting with glass and plastic bottles, cans, and even an old battery. They were able to observe that glass objects were the most common item that the octopuses use as shelter, coming up to 41.6% of all interactions recorded. Plastic litter came next on the list with 24.7% interaction. Scientists think that octopuses prefer glass over plastic since glass resembles the texture of seashells more.

According to The Guardian, Maira Proietti, supervisor of the research mentioned above, said, “They [octopuses] clearly see that there’s a lot of litter around, and it can therefore act as a kind of artificial camouflage. It shows their extreme ability to adapt. They are very intelligent animals, and they will use what they have at their disposal to continue sheltering or walking around with protection.”

The thing that the research wanted to highlight is that having these octopuses make use of trash for protection or shelter instead of their natural shelters like seashells could possibly mean that seashells are becoming more and more scarce in the ocean. Maira Proietti also mentioned that prolonged contact with trash, be it for sheltering or for egg laying, may expose octopuses to heavy metals and other harmful chemicals.

The video below shows how some octopuses use garbage for shelter.

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Octopuses are pretty ink-redible creatures, don’t you think? See how this clever octopus escaped his tank here, or check out how a diver managed to barter for a plastic cup with a cute little octopus here.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog