No Stupid Questions

That tens of thousands number is always brought up, but it's an average that is affected by the actions of Spiders Georg, an outlier who should not be counted.

Thank you for the reminder I need to get a new supply of duct tape.

Oh wow, I totally read the parent comment as ‘manatees’, and was like, “Odd, never heard of that, but okay.”

…

Then a dash of, “Holy shit, how’s this guy keeping manatees in a terrarium?”

The crickets aren't competition for the crickets.

Weird, I really figured the plural was sloths, but you learn something every day.

No, that's what you call people who correct people who use the wrong plural for octopus

Ohhh nice one

There's that, and also their short lifespan (1 to 5 years). And the fact that the mother only cares for their offspring while they're in eggs.

Forms of transmission of behaviors by imitation or communication mostly emerge in species that care for their young, like birds or mammals, because the young learns from their parents, which complements instinct. It gets stronger when they're a social species, because they also learn from every other individual. That's when culture begins to emerge (like how some "accents" or "dialects" can be identified in the songs of birds or whales of a same species). But a specie that isn't social and doesn't care for it's young, whatever an individual learnt in its lifetime dies with it, behaviors can only be transmitted genetically edit: ^inexact,^ ^see^ ^below^ , so they're slower to evolve.

[EDIT : I looked up some things online to make sure I wasn't spreading disinformation (should've been the other way around, sorry...) and it seems some nuance needs to be added to two things;

1. Despite being usually asocial and sometimes confrontational, octopuses can occasionally display social behaviors such as signal, so they're not devoid of inter-individual communication source

2. They seem to be able to learn from each-other to a certain extent. Source

I still think my point mostly stands, but it's a bit shakier than I thought.]

First they need to develop a language that allows them to transcend time.

The second Children of Stuff- I think it's Children of Ruin- talks about far-future octopod civilization. Interesting stuff. The whole trilogy is super good and I recommend it.

I was going to put in mountain lion and figured someone would go "lions hunt in packs!" and tried to use an alternate name. Forgot panther is also used for jaguars!

People call Cougars "Panthers" also, but they're not Pantera family.

.... I honestly have issues imagining what an aggressive red panda looks like.

I have no doubt that it exists, nature is fuckin scary, my brain just can't deal with that.