Octopus Playtime | Octopus In My House | BBC Earth

Scientists have discovered that octopuses are intelligent enough to do things... just for fun!

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The Octopus In My House
A professor develops an extraordinary relationship with an octopus when he invites it to live in his home. The octopus, called Heidi, unravels puzzles, recognises individual humans and even watches TV with the family. The episode also shows remarkable behaviour from around the world - from the day octopus, which can change colour and texture in a split second, to the coconut octopus, which carries around its own coconut shell to hide in. But most fascinating of all is seeing how Professor David Scheel and his daughter Laurel bond with an animal that has nine brains, three hearts and blue blood running through its veins.

Welcome to BBC EARTH! The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. Here you'll find 50 years worth of entertaining and thought-provoking natural history content. Dramatic, rare, and exclusive, nature doesn't get more exciting than this.

[jonbilgutay]

I loved the scene later on where the guy sets up a bell the octopus can ring to get the humans to show up and feed it. He inadvertently turned himself into the octopus' butler.

[stephenpain]

Years ago I worked at a dive centre in Cyprus where there was a young octopus in a tank/aquarium with a tube in one corner aerating the water with a constant stream of bubbles. The octopus would position itself over the tube, holding on with tentacles and then suddenly let go and ride the bubble stream up and across the tank. Then back for another go, and so on. Definitely playing and almost certainly a bit bored in captivity.

[Max_m]

For those who don’t know, the Seattle Octopus that got pretty famous for its level of ingenuity/smartness was because at night it would escape its tank by moving a loose decoration that gave it just enough height to get a leg over the top of the tank, then make its way the 50+ feet across the hall to the touch tanks, have a meal, and then somehow get back across the room and back into its tank.

[IndagoChild]

The fact that an octopus can play, recognize faces and seek attention from humans is absolutely fascinating.

[MM-vvmt]

When I lived in Cyprus, I'd run at the beach every morning. Once day, I was catching my breath bent over by the water looking at the rocks under water and saw a small octopodi just sitting there by her nest of rocks. I stuck my hand down into the water and thought she'd skedaddle for cover, but instead, she reached out and stuck out a few of her tentacles and wrapped them around my fingers. We played like that for a few minutes and then she got bored and moved back into her rock house. The next day, I went back, and there she was, and we did the same thing. I did this every day with her for the next month. Such a beautiful creature and so smart and responsive. I called her Juli, and I don't know what she called me. I never ate octopus ever again. In fact, because of her, I never ate any animals again. That was almost 25 years ago.

[decoeric]

I was scuba diving in Bonaire a few years ago and I had just started my dive, it was a shore dive. I got to about 12' and came across what I will call a "baby" octopus, I would say he was 8-10" in diameter. I ended up spending my entire dive playing with him. He would go and hide between some rocks, I would wiggle my hand and he would come out and play with my hand. I had neoprene gloves on, this went on for about 60 minutes. I never left the area and it was they coolest experience I have EVER had diving. Just me and that little octopus.

[Somenite]

My friends and I used to do a ton of Scuba diving and the few times we ran into an octopus we always talked about how intelligent they seemed when we got out of the water. You can just sense how smart they are and they always seem to be looking you over as much as you are checking them out. Also had an employee at a local aquarium tell us that they had fish disappearing over a few days from a large tank and when they went back and reviewed footage from security cameras they found an octopus in an adjacent tank was opening a hatch on top of its tank and crawling over into the fish tank, eating one or two and then going back to it's own tank and even closing the top behind it. Crazy story but I believe it.

[alanaaites]

You can see the intelligence in their eyes. I had one in Hawaii following us around a dock. It watched our every action.

[Loyannelima]

I love how the scene looks like it's walking in the house, not actually inside of an aquarium 😍😍😍

[crossoverclub]

Octopuses are such incredible animals. Their intelligence is truly something.

[bellah]

Three hearts. No wonder she’s so affectionate. She has more love to give.

[jandphoenix]

The film 'My Octopus Teacher' was glorious and was all filmed in the ocean rather than a tank. They are phenomenal and if we recognise their intelligence, a tank is kind of sad.

[charcat]

My late Grandfather, Martin R. Brittan, was a Professor of Biological Sciences at California State University and specialized in Ichthyology. He refused to eat any Cephalopoda after researching them, he believed they were highly intelligent and sentient creatures. One female in particular would get out of the tank repeatedly no matter what efforts he took to secure it, and she would play hide and seek with him. She also, like our octopus girl in the video, loved to pull herself up from the tank to wrap herself around his shoulders in a hug.

[dontdoitdan]

I think one of my favorite stories about octopus intelegence is the one where an art student went to a aquarium to do some sketches of the fish. When they came around to the octopus, they noticed the octopus would hold still for a bit, move, then hold still again in a different position. Almost as if the octopus knew they were drawing it.

[COLT-zrjf]

To say that these beautiful creatures are not sentient is crazy, they are more connected to their world than we could ever be. Your video's are intriguing and such a valuable learning tool. Thank you.

[scootermom]

We had a beta fish that loved playing in the bubbles of his aquarium. He'd purposely swim into the bubbles then let them push him out. He'd do this several times throughout the day. He also loved when we put floating objects on top of the water. He especially liked the rubber ducks and the moss ball. It was fun to see him interact with different objects.

[EchanteDante]

That rhythmic twirling of its legs was absolutely magical and hypnotic…WHAT WAS IT DOING?

[blackbird]

As an underwater welder (retired) I have come across these amazing creatures and found this video far too short. It is engaging, compelling even and I was eager to learn more about the interaction between humans and octopuses. ("Octopi'' was how I learned it but the OED says different.)

[bluehorizons]

Many years back now as a young man, I was snorkelling by a peninsula of rocks in the Mediterranean just off the Spanish Costa del Sol when I found myself being eyed very closely like this by a big octopus with two of its arms stretched between big rocks.. It was no more than a metre away and, despite my naturally curious inclination to swim even closer, I admit to being more than a little taken aback by its apparently sudden appearance and so after a brief moment slowly turned and left the creature to its own devices. It was an amazing experience, for sure, its watchful look so alien and yet so human. You don't ever forget things like that.

[Heffey]

Humans do not give other animals enough credit. Loved the 600 million year fact. I hope we can start protecting and respecting the other inhabitants on this planet. If not we will all suffer equally.