Trivia

Hard

Which Creature Uses The Poisonous Tentacles Of The Portuguese Man O’ War Jellyfish As Weapons?

Blanket Octopuses
Sun Fish
Sea Otters
European Squid
Black and white drawing of a Blanket Octopus.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Wikimedia

Answer: Blanket Octopuses

As far as tool use in the animal kingdom goes, we’d have to say that using a stick to get termites out of a termite mound or the like really pales in comparison to what blanket octopuses will do.

The blanket octopus, named such because of the web of skin that connects two of its eight tentacles (adult females only), is immune to the stings of the Portuguese Man O’ War. Not content to be immune to one of the most poisonous jellyfish in the world, however, the blanket octopus will actually tear the tentacles off Man O’ Wars it encounters and use them as weapons.

Long after a jellyfish is dead (as any unlucky beach goer can attest) the tentacles will still sting as the stinger is activated by a chemical reaction with the target, not by the nervous system of the host, which means that for as long as the octopus wants to carry around their home-made jellyfish flail, they have a deadly weapon on hand.

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