The Viewer’s Request
We are always eager to test and prove the intelligence of our favorite masterminds, our octopuses. We were therefore really excited to read the following request by one of our viewers:
“I remember reading an article about cuttlefish number sense in the Guardian a couple of years ago. I wonder if octopuses will prove to be cleverer than cuttlefish in the same experiment. Here is the Guardian article:
The Setup: Place two dividers on the two sides of the aquarium. Behind each divider, place a different number of crabs (e.g. 2 on the left versus 1 on the right, 4 on the right versus 3 on the left etc.) Make sure that the larger group of crabs is placed on a different side each time.
My hypothesis: I believe the octopus will choose to go after the larger group of crabs.”
Octopus and Number Sense
Can an octopus count? Would the octopus score a better note than its fellow cephalopod, the cuttlefish, on this math test?
To test this, we tried different number combinations such as:
- 1 versus 2
- 4 versus 2
- 6 versus 4
- 5 versus 1
- 1 versus 6
- 5 versus 6
As we were hoping that the octopus will prove wittier than the cuttlefish, we decided to include even a of group 6 crabs in the experiment. We switched the side with the larger group of crabs with every new combination.
The Outcome
Interestingly enough, our octopus initially did seem able to count, as he opted for the larger group of crabs.
However, when presented with a single crab versus a big group of crabs, we went for the single crab. Perhaps the octopus felt that the single crab was a safer choice for a danger-free meal.
In any case, we will continue to explore the question regarding the number sense of the octopus in the future, as the results we got at this time were in no way conclusive.
Calculating The Larger Group Of Prey
The original research was executed by Tsang-I Yang and Chuan-Chin Chiao, researchers at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan back in 2016. According to their published paper, cuttlefish were presented with different numbers of shrimp, and consistently preferred the larger group of shrimps.
This very interesting and highly entertaining experiment not only addresses the subject of number sense and octopus, but offers some insight in the hunting strategies used for capturing prey as well.
Maybe set the experiment up using frozen shrimp so that the hunting/prey factor is eliminated?
I work hard, I insist, I will succeed