Animal Parents

I object to the label of 'dumb animals'... whoever came up with that label needs to get a new dictionary for animals are anything BUT dumb~!!! Whatever genetic coding exists in so many aspects of an animal's life is beyond the human's intelligence to break or understand, IMHO...

The other day I was reading a thread about a Giant Pacific Octopus named "J-1" here at this NPM forum... The title of the news story was "Aging Octopus Finds Love At Last" and basically J-1 was reaching his senior years without having known the experience of amplification of his species...

In a human-controlled environment, he was never given a mate but due to the extreme length of his years, time was running out to mate at all... And once octopi mate, they die so I'm sure those in charge held off on this for as long as they could... In May of 2004, he was introduced to Aurora, a female of his species and they fulfilled the aspects of parenthood... On month later, she laid thousands of eggs and three months later in September, J-1 died but Aurora continued on with the goal of having babies...

In April of the following year, Aurora's eggs were considered sterile, but she surprised them all as they started hatching, so plans to drain her tank were halted... For you see? Birth for a female octopus marks the final milestone for them as well... They stop eating as they tend to their brood and then die as well... However Aurora's babies were carefully watched and studied by those at the Alaska SeaLife Center... In August of 2005, Aurora was humanely euthanized out of concern for her health... But both J-1 and Aurora achieved their goals - prolifically increasing the numbers of their species...

Considered one of the smartest in the marine world, octopus brains far outweigh others in their environment by size and weight... And it is believed, computing power as well... Dumb animals?... Well, that is for you to decide, but despite a human controlled environment and many inaccurate human guesses along the way, these two managed to outwit their caregivers not once, but many times...