Blæksprutten, der dirkede låsen op

I to tusind og seksten havde et lille akvarium i New Zealand et problem. En af deres blæksprutter, som hed Inky, var forsvundet fra sit akvarium. Der var ikke noget knust glas. Ingen alarmer var gået i gang. Personalet kom om morgenen, og Inky var simpelthen væk.

In 2016, a small aquarium in New Zealand had a problem. One of their octopuses, called Inky, had disappeared from his tank. There was no broken glass. No alarms had gone off. The staff arrived in the morning, and Inky was simply gone.

Efter at have kigget rundt i rummet fandt de endelig svaret. Inky havde skubbet toppen af sit akvarium op om natten. Han havde derefter slæbt kroppen hen over gulvet til et lille afløbsrør, som førte ud til havet. Han pressede sig ind i røret, gled gennem otte fod metal og kom ud i havet. Ved morgengry var han fri.

After looking around the room, they finally found the answer. Inky had pushed open the top of his tank during the night. He had then dragged his body across the floor to a small drain pipe that led out to the ocean. He squeezed inside the pipe, slid through eight feet of metal, and came out in the sea. By morning, he was free.

Det utrolige er ikke kun det, Inky gjorde, men det, det betyder. Blæksprutter er nogle af de klogeste dyr på Jorden. De har omkring fem hundrede millioner neuroner, som svarer til en hunds hjerne. De fleste af disse neuroner sidder ikke i hovedet, men er spredt ud i armene. Hver arm kan næsten tænke selv.

What is incredible is not just what Inky did, but what it means. Octopuses are some of the smartest animals on Earth. They have about 500 million neurons, similar to the brain of a dog. Most of those neurons are not in the head but spread through their arms. Each arm can almost think for itself.

I laboratorier rundt om i verden har blæksprutter lært at åbne glas ved at dreje låget. De kan løse gåder for at nå et stykke krabbekød inde i en boks. Nogle har husket ansigterne på bestemte forskere og sprøjtet vand på dem, de ikke kunne lide.

In labs around the world, octopuses have learned to open jars by turning the lid. They can solve puzzles to reach a piece of crab inside a box. Some have remembered the faces of specific researchers and squirted water at the ones they did not like.

Forskere forstår stadig ikke fuldt ud, hvordan blæksprutters intelligens fungerer. Den udviklede sig adskilt fra vores, for mere end fem hundrede millioner år siden. Den er på sin vis det tætteste, vi kommer på at møde et fremmed sind på denne planet.

Scientists still do not fully understand how octopus intelligence works. It evolved separately from ours, more than 500 million years ago. It is, in a way, the closest thing we have to meeting an alien mind on this planet.

Inky blev aldrig set igen. Akvariet fik en ny blæksprutte, men de gjorde det nye akvarium meget sværere at flygte fra.

Inky was never seen again. The aquarium replaced him, but they made the new tank much harder to escape from.