Octopuses have a mysterious behavior of making dens and creating unintentional gardens outside of them.
All octopus has to create their own den independently without taking the help of team-working.
A single individual has done all activities such as choosing the right place for the shelter, building a den, and making a garden around it.
There are also some places where octopus groups exist and all the single octopuses have to create a den with every single unit at 8-12 inches (20-30 centimeters).
Do they make gardens knowingly?
When bringing the shells to the house, the purpose of the octopus is not to make their house secure. Instead, they bring scallops (similar to oysters, mussels, and clams) for eating and feeding their babies.
So, after eating them, they left the hardcovers i.e shells. That’s why the hardcovers that create gardens are just a waste for the octopus.
Octopuses always prefer to eat food at home and not outside when they had caught it because of the risk of possible predators.
Almost every octopus shows the same behavior of creating stacks of shells outside their dens. These stacks help scientists discover where the octopus can be found. Scientists also get to know about the choices of prey according to the shell types.
They create dens having 16 inches (40 centimeters) holes which are surrounded by stacks of shells. In the soft ground of the ocean, it’s not likely for having a stable shelter, so the stacks of shells provide protection like a hard wall.
These animals do not like to expend more time away from the den for finding food. The reason behind this is, when they go away for a long time, another octopus could occupy the den. so bringing the food home is their conscious behavior.
Do octopuses use Obstacles to hide?
Yes, octopuses carry uneatable objects to the home for using them as obstacles. Some of the octopus species also gather coconut shells for the purpose of hiding.
They even use the materials like human-created waste and think of them as useful as they help in hiding.
Which Octopus Species love to make gardens?
Every octopus species which lives on the ground of the sea create gardens independently.
Which is the largest Garden of octopuses?
The biggest octopus garden is located 50 miles (80 kilometers) near to San Simeon, a village in California, USA which is a section of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Here, the nursery of female octopuses can be found where they lay their eggs and look after them.
When you go into the deep water, it becomes impossible for divers to perform scuba diving nearby the nursery. That’s the reason we have to use underwater robots for investigating these big octopus gardens.
These robots took pictures of 100s of octopuses in the color of lavender settled among the rocks.
Even some of the octopuses hang on the vehicles because they think the unknown vehicle as dangerous and try to attack it.
The amazing thing is, there is warm water on the ground sea instead of going through the deep freezing water. Actually, the warmth comes up from the seafloor which releases the warm water.
The area where this amazing phenomenon happens is Davidson Seamount Management Zone where underwater mountains are found. Their highest height is 4000 feet (1220 meters) below the water surface of the ocean.
Because the underwater mountain is an ancient volcano, it provides warmness to the sea ground continuously till now. That’s why the female octopuses love this place to lay eggs.
Do pet octopuses create gardens in aquariums?
When you keep an octopus as a pet in the aquarium, you could see the real magic of creating an octopus garden.
Why Octopolis is rare and special?
Octopolis is a small town of octopuses where the social interactions between them are common.
This phenomenon is rare because octopuses don’t like meeting with other kinds of octopuses, so they like to live their life alone by enjoying the ocean.
Scientists discovered this at 50 feet (15.2 meters) below the water surface in Jervis Bay (Australia), making relationships on a small plot of sea ground.
Due to those interactions and relationships, there are both chances that they will mate and possibly can fight.
Octpolis are spread over a few square meters which these octopuses consider meaningful real estate. Their unusual fighting shocked animal behavior experts where these animals threw objects at each other.
We can see thousands of scallop shells as a whole making the octopus gardens for their protection. Their town is built with a metal piece and octopuses bring all the shells themselves for the town’s protection.
The main problem is narrow space because when more shells get added, individual octopuses have to do activities in less room.
The neighbors are at a distance of arm’s length and when they break that distance, it drives octopuses to fight.
When the population of the town rises, the future of octopolis becomes doubtful because of the boxing matches of octopuses.
Octlantis: Similar Town to Octopolis
There is another community where dozens of dens are present and that’s why the chances of mating and fighting are always high there.
These octopuses have a meal of their prey and keep the shells of clams and scallops for making gardens and dens.
It is an interesting phenomenon where an octopus goes to a neighbor’s den and banishes him from his own home. In this way, the population changes continuously due to the coming and going of those octopuses.
No one knows, what the banished octopus do and where do they go after quitting the community.
Amazing Facts about Octopus
Octopuses are cephalopods i.e. head feet which means their heads are directly attached to the arms of octopuses to their heads.
They have eight arms and a beak in their body.
They are intelligent enough to use the art of camouflage to save themselves from being hunted. All octopuses have the fantastic capability of hiding in plain sight. They change their body colors like a chameleon in of environment. That’s why they cannot be noticed when camouflaged even when they are directly in front of you.
From their Ancestors to now, these animals have stayed in the seas for tens of millions of years.
The only hard part of the octopus body is the beak and all the remaining body parts are soft, so they can easily fit in little holes and those holes should not be shorter than their beaks.
Nature has also provided it with the power of regeneration, so it can regenerate its arm if they have lost it to a predator.
Key points
There are altogether 300 species of octopus in the world’s oceans.
Most of them survive on the ground of the sea, and some stay near the surface of the water. For example paper nautilus species, they make a sheepskin shell to carry their eggs and control swimming in the water.
Some octopuses take the help of rocks to build a den and also make use of the nearest objects for closing the openings of the den.
Hi, I am Rama Gupta. I write articles about Space, Science, Future and Technology. I work at SpaceUpper.com since 2021. I am a student so, I keep learning something new daily which are amazing and helpful to us. I write them in the form of article which will help you to explore giant Universe of Science and Technology.
