ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Odd suckers: Octopus species that’s weirdly social, romantic

WASHINGTON

The octopus already is an oddball of the ocean. Now biologists have rediscovered a species of the sea creature that’s even stranger and shares some of our social and mating habits.

With their shifting shapes, mesmerizing eyes, and uncanny intelligence, octopuses “are one of the most mysterious and captivating species,” said Rich Ross, a senior biologist at the California Academy of Sciences. “They’re aliens alive on our planet and it feels like they have plans.”

For Ross and colleagues, it got stranger when they got a batch of octopuses from Central America to study. The critters just didn’t fit the loner denizen-of-the-deep profile that scientists had drawn for the rest of the 300 or so octopus species.

While most octopuses live alone, coming together for ever-so-brief and dangerous mating, couples of this species can live together to mate for a few days in the same cramped den or shell.

While other male octopuses mate from a distance to avoid being cannibalized, these octopuses mate entangled beak-to-beak. That style could almost be thought of as romantic, said Alvaro Roura, an octopus expert at La Trobe University in Australia, who wasn’t part of the study.

While other females lay one batch of eggs and then die, the female of this species lives longer and produces eggs constantly, bettering the species chance of survival, Ross said.

But it’s more than sex. These octopuses clean out food waste from their dens. They twirl their arms like an old-timey movie villain with a moustache. And they quickly learn that people mean food: When someone enters the room, they leave their dens and head to the top of the tank.

A report on the species was published Wednesday by the journal PLOS One.

Police: Woman takes limo to shoplift in Minnesota mall

ROCHESTER, Minn.

Police say a 22-year-old woman accused of shoplifting arrived in style at a mall in southeastern Minnesota.

Authorities say a limousine driver who took the woman to the Apache Mall in Rochester on Monday helped police to find her.

Lt. Jim Evenson told the Post-Bulletin that the woman stole about $300 in merchandise from a sporting-goods store then fought with security officers before running away.

As police searched the area for the suspect, the limo driver stopped and asked officers who they were looking for. When he heard her description, he told police it might be the woman who had just called for a ride back to Kahler Grand Hotel.

Evenson says officers followed the limo driver to the pickup spot and arrested the woman.

Associated Press