Chobotnica, ktorá si otvorila zámok

V roku dvetisícšestnásť malo malé akvárium na Novom Zélande problém. Jedna z ich chobotníc, ktorá sa volala Inky, zmizla zo svojej nádrže. Sklo nebolo rozbité. Nezaznel žiadny alarm. Personál prišiel ráno a Inky bola jednoducho preč.

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.

Keď sa poobzerali po miestnosti, napokon našli odpoveď. Inky počas noci odtlačila veko svojej nádrže. Potom sa preplazila po podlahe k malej odtokovej rúre, ktorá viedla von do oceánu. Vtisla sa do rúry, preplazila sa cez osem stôp kovu a vynorila sa v mori. Do rána bola voľná.

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.

Ohromujúce nie je len to, čo Inky urobila, ale čo to znamená. Chobotnice patria medzi najinteligentnejšie zvieratá na Zemi. Majú približne päťsto miliónov neurónov, podobne ako mozog psa. Väčšina týchto neurónov sa nenachádza v hlave, ale je rozptýlená po ramenách. Každé rameno dokáže takmer samostatne myslieť.

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.

Vo vedeckých laboratóriách po celom svete sa chobotnice naučili otvárať poháre otáčaním veka. Dokážu riešiť hádanky, aby sa dostali ku kúsku kraba vo vnútri škatule. Niektoré si zapamätali tváre konkrétnych výskumníkov a striekali vodou na tých, ktorých nemali rady.

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.

Vedci stále úplne nechápu, ako funguje inteligencia chobotníc. Vyvinula sa oddelene od tej našej, pred viac ako päťsto miliónmi rokov. Je to svojím spôsobom najbližšie, čo máme k stretnutiu s mimozemskou mysľou na tejto planéte.

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 už nikdy nikto nevidel. Akvárium ju nahradilo novou chobotnicou, no novú nádrž urobili oveľa ťažšie na útek.

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