Sony Gave An Octopus At A New Zealand Aquarium A Camera; Trains It To Photograph Tourists
Apr 10, 2015
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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Octopuses are pretty wondrous animals with all those legs and insanely astute critical thinking skills. It’s actually not surprising at all an animal trainer working at Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium in New Zealand, was able to train an octopus to take photos. In fact, it only took “Rambo” the octopus three attempts to understand how the process works.
Now, Rambo charges a cool $2 for a visitor to her tank to sit for a portrait taken by the octographer. The small donation goes directly to the aquarium to help offset expenses. But, if you’re looking to have Rambo take your photo, be sure to check her hours first, as the aquarium says she’s on a light work schedule.
Take a look:
“When we first tried to get her to take a photo, it only took three attempts for her to understand the process. That’s faster than a dog. Actually it’s faster than a human in some instances.” Mark Vette, trainer
In front of her tank, there’s a backdrop where visitors can pose for their photos. It appears these children on a school trip to the aquarium thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
The camera, a Sony DSC-TX30, was secured into a custom made housing to mount onto Rambo’s tank. The campaign was sponsored by Sony to help show how durable their camera is and to raise awareness of octopuses high level of intelligence.
[ via Cult Of Mac ]
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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53 responses to “Sony Gave An Octopus At A New Zealand Aquarium A Camera; Trains It To Photograph Tourists”
What’s his or her day rate? Or are they are they shoot and burn
Smart AND tasty! What a great combo!
I bow down to our new tentacled overlords,….
Don’t you mean, bend over?…
So the copyright is with the Octopus? How cant he acquarium give the photos away? :p
Maybe they trained the octopus to sign a contract to make the photos work for hire..
No pen. He signed those contracts with his own ink.
In the US at least, an animal can’t own the copyright – these photos would be in the public domain (unless there can be some sort of copyright of the process involving the octopus, which I guess would be owned by the aquarium, but I don’t believe there’s precedent for that).
The aquarium is, however, the owner of the equipment and is charging for the process of printing the photo.
Excellent!!!
this is awesome
I wonder what its’ motivation is? Does it get a tasty treat after taking a photograph? I am very curious to know more.
It simply has a passion for photography. Its motivation and fulfillment is within taking the actual photo itself.
Amy’s question is at the heart of the training involved. How did the trainers motivate the octopus to use the camera? How was the octopus even made to understand what the camera was doing? There has to be some feedback loop in the process, observing that one’s actions result in something. So, if as you say, the satisfaction is in taking the photo (eg, no succulent fish treat is proffered after each shot), there are still the steps that led up to the acquisition of photo-taking skills which need some explanation.
Learn and we won’t put you on a plate with a side of chips?
Simple, direct and to the point. Thank you.
Clearly you don’t know how the photography industry works. They pay him nothing, the same that happens to all the other professionals in the world.
Pavlov would be so proud…………..
Today he shoots tourists. Tomorrow it will be weddings. The industry is doomed, DOOOOOMED I tell you.
yes but will he shoot gay weddings?
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA! lol.
Yeah, but NO SQUID! She won’t photograph that bunch.
After all, she does have her standards.
“light work” schedule – I like that.
Next step is hold flash with other tentacles.Maybe I will hire an octopus for the next event.
Can it pilot a drone?
They’d likely be able to pilot one, at least better than career politicians can govern. :P
That’s it. I’m buying my dog a camera.
I wonder if the octopus can see the pictures it just took?
People shouldnt eat octopus. Imagine if they learned how to wash dishes…
Or fold cloths…
Or play a musical instrument!
octopi
Both Octupuses and Octopi can be correctly used to refer to more than one Octopus. Also, those people up above pooh-poohing the amazing intelligence of these animals – they are quite capable of doing things simply for fun or curiosity. Perhaps it likes to response it gets out of people when it takes a picture!
It’s actually “octopodes”.
Only in the antipodes.
Pavlov’s dogs
Programmed response, nothing more.
Not saying you are wrong, as you probably aren’t, at least in theory. But I didn’t see any treat possibilities, they left so many unanswered questions!!! Lol… But even with Pavlov’s concept, the public never expected an octopus to be smart enough to put those two things together that well.
Not true. They can learn and are extremely intelligent. They are able to solve puzzles and exhibit memory.
You are incorrect. Pavlov’s dog functioned strictly in classical conditioning, the dogs didn’t have to DO anything, the bell was sounded and the food showed up. This octopus is functioning in operant conditioning. The octopus must first DO, behave, in order to get an outcome.
Pavlov’s dogs were tortured, intensely distressed, half-dead animals. Nothing credible can be based on that research. Dogs, when not tortured to beyond the point of endurance, are capable of problem solving and are extremely intelligent beings. As are dolphins, whales, monkey’s, many bird species, cats, pigs etc etc See no reason why an octopus wouldn’t be too.
Sorry but No. These animals are some of the smartest on earth. They can even out think some Evergreen students.
I got bitten by one once. It hurt and I still have the scar. I did pick it up when it fell out of a shell, so I should not have been surprised; just don’t mess with them as they can mess back at you.
And in darker news, the NRA has trained an octopus to use a gun …
Meanwhile at the Cobra cage…..
Oh sure, give all the glory to the octopus who can push a button and none to the all-wombat film crew who shot and edited the video.
bahahahaha
I would Love to see what one of these amazing creatures could do with a waterproof touch screen. Or maybe we would just have an underwater candy crush saga addiction of epic cephlapod proportion.
The only thing the article tells us is that they taught this octopus to press a particular button. I can’t help but think that there must be more to it that the author didn’t bother to explain, or else this is a really uninteresting story.
Can’t you just enjoy the story for what it is?
Because what the story is isn’t what it was pitched as. It was pitched as a demonstration of great intelligence and creativity, which would have been highly thought-provoking. It *was* a story about an animal that can push a button on command, which is about as non-newsworthy as one could imagine.
OK, I get your point. In other words, a typical Yahoo article with
a headline indicating one thing and the actuality being entirely another or, much less.
I don’t understand why there is only one picture here that the octopus has taken…
Is there no end in sight to the outsourcing of jobs? New Zealand can’t afford to pay a human a living wage to take photos?
I don’t see what is such a big deal. The octopus has been involved in the medium forever, and even invented the ink jet process.