Wildlife

Octopuses crawl to shore en masse

More than two dozen octopuses were spotted slogging along a shoreline in West Wales, worrying beachgoers, who spent some time picking up the critters and plopping them back into the ocean.

It is uncertain why the octopuses were engaged in what has been described by scientists as “odd” behaviour. There could be several reasons that they moved on to the beach, including spawning, weather and water temperatures. As the areas where they are exhibiting this odd behavior coincides with the two areas hit by the two recent low-pressure depressions and associated storms of Ophelia and Brian, it could be supposed that these have affected them. Or it could simply be injuries sustained by the rough weather itself or there could be a sensitivity to a change in atmospheric pressure.

Octlantis - Octopus Community off Australia

n the briny waters of Jervis Bay on Australia's east coast, where three rocky outcrops jut out from piles of broken scallop shells, beer bottles and lead fishing lures, a clutch of gambol among a warren of nearly two dozen dens..

The bustling community belies conventionally held notions of the cephalopods, once thought to be solitary and asocial. Scientists have discovered the normally gloomy and reclusive octopuses living at high densities in Jervis Bay, Australia, where they are interacting with one another, signaling, mating and throwing one another out of their dens.