'If you only have sex for one brief period of your life, and when you do there are sixteen legs to negotiate, courtship is always likely to be a messy business. With the release of a study into the love life of an Indonesian octopus, scientists have been surprised by just how kinky cephalopod copulation can get.
'Octopuses, notoriously shy, have previously resisted attempts to document their amorous behaviour - observations in captivity led researchers to conclude that they were un-romantic loners. Work by marine biologists at the University of California, however, has overturned those assumptions, uncovering a range of mating behaviour that includes flirtation, strangulation and obsessive stalking, as well as the occasional instance of cross-dressing. For females, the researchers discovered, the process is an uncomplicated affair. Observations of Abdopus aculeatus, an octopus the size of an orange that lives in shallow reefs off Sulawesi, found the females to be free with their affections.' (Times Online article).
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