Crazy link timing! I just got my mug in the mail last week:
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
91–100 of 177 posts
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#92Fetch me a sky hook, I need to capture a tree octopus!
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#93I don't mean to spoil the fun, downvote me if this is not in the spirit, but it took me way too long to figure this out and others may be as slow as me and save some time by reading this comment: > The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Inter…
Had it not been for your comment it would’ve definitely taken me longer to figure out, and I would’ve most likely made a fool out of myself by telling people about it. I was extremely susceptible to this story, because I absolutely love octopuses, and everything related to them. However I’m not an expert and it would not surprise me at all (given how surprising octopuses are generally) that there was a octopus group…
I immediately thought this looked too absurd to be real, but I wonder if my lack of octopus knowledge helped me out here. I know octopi are pretty smart, but I don’t think of them as being too surprising in their capabilities.
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#94I don't mean to spoil the fun, downvote me if this is not in the spirit, but it took me way too long to figure this out and others may be as slow as me and save some time by reading this comment: > The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Inter…
I think part of the purpose of sharing this website without saying anything about it might be to show that, in the age of the internet and AI, we don’t really verify information before consuming it. It’s not just children who are gullible. A lot of what we read on the internet is second hand information, facts with subjective interpretations, opinions, or straight up false information.
> in the age of the internet and AI, we don’t really verify information before consuming it
As if this had ever been different. I would even argue that, because it is simply much easier to do, people are more incentivized to fact-check imformation, than 100 years ago.
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Add in that the animal world is full of wacky creatures that don't fit heuristic models for plausibility. People thought the Platypus was a hoax was it was initially discovered. It is real.
People still call the dropbear a hoax.
And haggis hunting: https://darachcroft.com/news/haggis-hunting-season-tips-and-...
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#96I don't mean to spoil the fun, downvote me if this is not in the spirit, but it took me way too long to figure this out and others may be as slow as me and save some time by reading this comment: > The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Inter…
To be fair, tree octopuses sound about as outlandish as land crabs, which I still have trouble believing are real. https://arthropoda.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/coconut-crab....
Not to mention the land shark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Shark_(Saturday_Night_Liv...
and the prairie squid: https://subgenius.fandom.com/wiki/Prairie_squid
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#97I don't mean to spoil the fun, downvote me if this is not in the spirit, but it took me way too long to figure this out and others may be as slow as me and save some time by reading this comment: > The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998 by a humor writer under the pseudonym Lyle Zapato. Since its creation, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus website has been commonly referenced in Inter…
> I don't mean to spoil the fun, downvote me if this is not in the spirit, but it took me way too long to figure this out and others may be as slow as me and save some time by reading this comment: I believed it too. The thing is, this is something no one is really incentivized to lie about. If some website says "politician did X", then your lie detector turns on, because it's worth it for lots of websites to lie or…
Well there are mudskippers [0] [1] which can end up crawling up to and resting on branches and trees growing out of the water. So while it seems untrue, it wouldn't be far fetched for a species of octopus adapted to end up doing so, especially if the out of water circumstances are narrow enough(very temporary, trunks & branches very close to water, etc).
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#98Let's not forget the ice worms: Ice Worms and Their Habitats on North Cascade Glaciers https://glaciers.nichols.edu/iceworm/ and the Australian Drop Bear https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
> and the Australian Drop Bear
Urban legend I was told (In Auckland - not Australia)
In the war the US army moved vast reserves into North Australia for quite obvious reasons.
Tanks on exercises in the Australian desert got very hot, so naturally kept their hatches open whenever they could.
Massed tanks on manoeuvres in the desert will from time to time run into trees.
Koala spend 90% of their time asleep in trees.
Completing the picture a tank blunders into a tree and koala are dislodged and rain down.
Through open tank hatches.
The "Great Australian Drop Bear" is a recently woken angry Koala in fight mode in a crowded tank.....
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#99Yep. Inoculating the idea that science is something not to be trusted is a lot of hard work. Very funny, ha ha...
Re: The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So it’s not like a tree octopus is any more ridiculous than the coconut crab? It is a lot more ridiculous though because land crabs are a well known thing (e.g. hermit crabs) whereas land octopuses don't exist. Octopuses are very much a water-only type of organism. It just requires a little prior knowledge about the broad strokes of animalian orders.
Octopuses are molluscs, and there are lots of land living molluscs, right?
To make things even more murky, some octopuses can actually breathe air out of water (which I knew prior to seeing the page), so I was actually semi-fooled by the article as well. An arboreal octopus is actually not that far-fetched.