Cape Town - An octopus, fondly named Brianna, at the Two Oceans Aquarium gave staff members and visitors a show last week when she claimed the squeegee from a staff member who was cleaning her exhibit.
After moonlighting as a window ‘squeegee-er’, Brianna decided she wanted to be in charge of syphoning as well after she attached herself to the aquarium syphon cleaner.
Aquarist Ayrton King said Brianna who arrived at Two Oceans in January has been a great addition, but would be released back into the ocean around June as the aquarium only kept octopuses for six months.
This was to allow them to go into the wild and hopefully find a mate to reproduce, and add to their population numbers.
Two Oceans Aquarium spokesperson Renée Leeuwner said they had very short lifespans, of only a year, which was the reason that Octopus are kept at the aquarium for a short period.
Whenever they cleaned, King said they used different tools such as brushes and squeegees- all different textures that octopus actually liked to interact with because it was something new in their environment.
If anyone needs their windows cleaned, it would appear our #octopus has claimed the squeegee and is doing a stellar job!🐙 pic.twitter.com/hkwsGyUSl9
— Two Oceans Aquarium (@2OceansAquarium) March 6, 2022
He said a staff member who was unfamiliar with the animal had cleaned the exhibit last week and so Brianna, as smart as she is, was able to actually manipulate the situation and claim the squeegee.
“When I’m cleaning, I leave my hand in the exhibit so the animal can interact with my hand - this allows me to still clean using the brushes and the squeegees, whereas what happened last week was the staff member hadn’t worked with the animal regularly so did not know how to keep the animal occupied. The animal thus grabbed the squeegee and would not let go,” King said.
He said this was not a problem as the animal actually got to explore and interact with a new item.
King said octopus brains had quite a large surface area - especially in comparison to the size of their bodies - this meant the animals were able to process large quantities of information quite fast.
“They are able to taste and smell through their tentacles and they are able to almost control each tentacle individually which allows them to actually learn through texture and tactile. They are also able to differentiate between shapes and remember scenarios as well as how they worked out things,” King said.
“We also have penguins that like to interact with the brooms and brushes we use to clean with. Our Japanese spider-crab likes to interact with a toothbrush that we clean her with. Our turtles also like to interact with our cleaning tools,” he added.
🐙After moonlighting as a window squeegee-er last week, our resident #octopus has decided it wants to be in charge of siphoning too!
— Two Oceans Aquarium (@2OceansAquarium) March 16, 2022
Thanks for the amazing clip Ayrton King - glad you have a productive little helper! pic.twitter.com/7FSpiMHwvO