Why shouldn't an octopus be able to "multi-task" collective information to each of its 8 brain-equipped tentacles? We, humans, multi-task each day without even being aware of it. Our brain quietly signals our body to lean forward from a sitting position, shifting just the correct amount of our weight forward while we grasp the arms of our chair and simultaneously push upward with enough force to assist our legs in causing our body to raise and our abdomen and chest to lean still forward and our legs to begin straightening along with our arms as we finally arrive at a standing position to which our ankles and feet make tiny adjustments to compensate. We are standing.
All of that took on average less than 2 - seconds yet each movement to each affected limb was smoothly choreographed as if performing a scripted sequence from a dance. We do this and countless other motions every day without thinking about it. So does the octopus. It doesn't have a thumb but rather hundred of grippers and in an environment where it is almost weightless. Not much need for a skeleton or exoskeleton. It's just a cool, smart creature. I'd love to have my own large aquarium and a tiny, young octopus to raise and conduct learning and intelligence experiments with. That would be one cool job to have.
Regarding other animals other than cats and dogs, part of what makes us "intelligent" or superior in our own minds is the fact that we (along with some primates) have an opposable thumb, communicate, can think and reason, gain and recall newly learned knowledge and fashion tools, There are other qualifications as well depending on one's sources.
Some animals certainly fashion tools for use in obtaining food, teach their young or others in their group, techniques or learned behaviors. Gulls will often take a large clam shell high into the sky then drop it, several times if needed for the shell to finally pop open displaying its contents for the awaiting gull to swoop down to eat. Some whales have learned and taught to others in their "family" group herding of schools of fish so that they can all devour large quantities of the fish. A pack of hyenas will encircle a wounded or weakened animal as will many other species.
This is learned behavior.
How does a little hummingbird migrate hundreds of miles or possibly thousands of miles only to be able to return to the exact place the following year? (no GPS).
What I have learned about dogs and cats is that there's nothing they can't figure out or get to if they want to badly enough...especially if they work in tandem to solve it!
Dogs and Cats (and parrots, etc.) have learned to train humans pretty well to attend to their needs. They bark or scratch to let us know to let them out or back in, or if they're hungry. Porpoises have trained humans to throw fish at them if they do stupid tricks for the humans! What a gig!
Just passing through...
