{"id":23438,"date":"2023-01-11T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T09:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=23438"},"modified":"2023-01-12T10:21:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T09:21:52","slug":"throwing-tantrums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2023\/01\/11\/throwing-tantrums\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwing tantrums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Octopuses need their personal space, and they have a unique way of making sure they get it <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Octopuses are debunking the myth that, in Australia, good neighbours become good friends <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

NatureBang <\/em>
What can an octopus teach us? <\/p>\n\n

\n\n

SOME ANIMALS ARE MADE FOR COMMUNAL living, but octopuses aren\u2019t among them. Australia\u2019s gloomy octopuses are solitary animals by inclination. And yet in Jervis Bay, drawn by a plentiful supply of scallops, they pack themselves together like sardines. And new research shows they have come up with a novel way of enforcing personal space. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

\u201cThe sand at Jervis Bay is too fine and silty to support a stable den,\u201d says Peter Godfrey-Smith, a professor who led the research from the University of Sydney in Australia. \u201cBut the empty scallop shells provide a much better building material. The more octopuses that move in, the more shells there are for building dens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But den construction is not all they do with the shells. They also use them as ammunition against neighbours. In the journal PLOS <\/em>ONE, <\/em>Godfrey-Smith and his colleagues describe how the octopuses launch the shells and other debris in the direction of their neighbours by holding them in front of their siphon and propelling them with a jet of exhaled water. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cAt most it\u2019s about 50 per cent accurate,\u201d he says. The big question is whether they are actively targeting neighbours, or whether direct hits are an unintentional consequence of some other function, such as housekeeping.<\/p>\n\n

 \u201cThere are quite a few cases where a male has been bugging a female for mating, and the female throws stuff at him. There\u2019s another between two females that were tussling and poking at each other and the throws were mixed in with that sort of getout-of-my-face behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Stuart Blackman <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

PHOTOS: PETER: DANIEL BOUD; OCTOPUS: P GODFREY-SMITH ET AL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Octopuses need their personal space, and they have a unique way of making sure they get it <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"22","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"22","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_22-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"February-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"February-2023","purple_external_id":"February-2023-22-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"February-2023-22-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087240||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087240||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.500","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.500","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.500","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.500","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-01-12T09:16:55Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"16a7c6b8-4c2d-43f1-bcaa-e44c18db9e51","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-01-12T09:21:58Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AFqfGuEwtQ_G8quRMGNueUQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview.jpg",1946,1298,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/Throw-at-6525-2118-v5_cmyk_preview.jpg",1946,1298,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Octopuses need their personal space, and they have a unique way of making sure they get it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24123,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438\/revisions\/24123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}