Female Female octopuses throw rocks at males that bother them.

Question

Female octopuses throw rocks at males that bother them, documented in Octopus tetricus

Answer 1

1. Write a brief overall summary of your findings.

During this study, scientists have discovered that female octopuses like to throw rocks at males if they're uncomfortable or feel harassed. A 2015 study by biologist Peter Godfrey-Smith found that octopuses do throw rocks with their tentacles. While the idea of octopuses throwing rocks wasn't a discovery, what they were throwing at was new. They got some evidence of what the octopus was throwing at in 2016 when a female octopus threw a silt at a male octopus for attempting to mate with her. Octopus throws differently depending on what's happening. If they're building a den, it's angled. If it's towards another octopus, it goes between tentacles, left or right. They found that of the 101 throws, 90 percent of the throws were from females.
2. What primary sources did you find (e.g., transcripts, videos of politician speeches, tweets from public figures, scientific studies)? For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.

The primary source I used was from an article by the Smithsonian Magazine. I read the whole article, and they use a reliable source to prove their point. The source is from the biologist Peter Godfrey-Smith, a professor at the University of Sydney who has written several papers and books on wildlife. He has also written a book on the octopus called Other Minds: The Octopus and Evolution of Intelligent Life, so he does have some knowledge of the octopus. He also has his website that I checked, and then I went to the university he worked at and checked it out to see if it was legitimate.

https://petergodfreysmith.com/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/female-octopuses-throw-things-male-harassers-180978548/
3. What secondary sources did you find (e.g., newspapers, magazines)? Only use secondary sources if sufficient primary sources are not available. For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.

I have a primary source, so I don't need a secondary source.
4. What potential biases or interests might each of your sources have?

Potential biases are small, as the sources are reliable and have some credibility to prove their evidence.  
5. What evidence supports the claim you are fact-checking?

I checked the sources' credibility, such as the Smithsonian Magazine and Peter Godfrey-Smith. I checked other articles and they all use the quote "a single female threw material 10 times, with 5 of these hitting a male in an adjacent den, who attempted several times to mate with her,"
6. What evidence undermines the claim you are fact-checking?

The coincidence that all the articles, posts, and newspapers I looked at that use the same quote.
7. What happened when you tried contacting the person or group who made the original claim? (Always try to contact them—it’s okay if you don’t get a reply. For example, if the claim is that the president said something, try reaching out to the administration. If it was a Bluesky user, message that user on Bluesky.)

When I tried to contact the journalist who made this, I didn't get any information as of writing this.

Answer 2

This claim is true. Female octopuses will throw objects at males when the feel harassed. Females will gather objects like shells and silt, and launch it at the male with a siphon of water. I found this information on smithsonianmag.com including https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/female-octopuses-throw-things-male-harassers-180978548/

Another source says female octopuses have been observed and filmed throwing objects at annoying male octopuses off the coast of Australia. I found this information on newsscientist.com
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2287879-female-octopuses-throw-things-at-males-that-are-harassing-them/

Both sources describe the female octopus as shooting the objects with a syphon of water, and not physically throwing the objects, so it could be seen as slightly exaggerated, but overall this claim is true.

Answer 3

Think of this as your investigation log. Answer each question to explain what you discovered and how you got there.

1. Write a brief overall summary of your findings.

I found out that it was true that an Octopus could hurl a rock at something underwater and that the video was accurate but maybe a tad misleading and exaggerated. A lot of people in the comments were saying it was AI but I was able to find the real video and it wasn't AI. This was verified in. Mutliple sources and a deep dive on Facebook allowed me to find that it is true that Female octopus's throw rocks and objects at males if they feel like they are being harassed. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2287879-female-octopuses-throw-things-at-males-that-are-harassing-them/

2. What primary sources did you find (e.g., transcripts, videos of politician speeches, tweets from public figures, scientific studies)? For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.

I found the original video and article on a site called PLOS one and few social media posts about this phenomenon of Octopus's throwing objects when feeling cornered or harassed. Also when deep diving into the comments I noticed a lot of comments claiming that it wasn't ai or fake because it's something that an Octopus actually does.

3. What secondary sources did you find (e.g., newspapers, magazines)? Only use secondary sources if sufficient primary sources are not available. For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/female-octopuses-throw-things-male-harassers-180978548/ This source talks about how scientists in Australia have researched this behavior and claim that an Octopus can target another Octopus with consistent precision and claim that a female threw a rock at a male 10 times and connected on 5 of those throws.
4. What potential biases or interests might each of your sources have?

None. I only looked at science based articles that are used for fact checking.
5. What evidence supports the claim you are fact-checking?

That I did my research through multiple different news and science medias.
Potential biases are minimal because this is something that you can research and prove. 

Answer 4

This claim is mostly accurate, but oversimplified. The source that is linked in the claim is a Bluesky post from an account that is not a primary source and carries no scientific trust and authority. The post seems to be more for show rather than scientific education as there is very little detail provided. However, this claim is supported by other trustworthy sources. A verified, peer-reviewed article describes that octopus often propel shells and silt through water by releasing the materials from their arms while creating a forceful jet (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276482). This backs the claim as it is supported by a scientific, legitimate source. The article also notes that females threw debris at males more often than the reverse and that males who were struck sometimes ducked or were hit. There was no specific mention of this behavior occurring due to the females being “bothered”. While the octopus do not technically “throw” rocks at the males that bother them, a similar action is done. The claim that female octopus throw rocks at males that bother them is oversimplified, but the general concept is supported through other trustworthy sources.

Answer 5

Think of this as your investigation log. Answer each question to explain what you discovered and how you got there.

1. as a matter of fact yes Female octopus are known to throw rocks at male octopus when they feel a sense of anger or unsafe. 
2. according to the smithsonian https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/female-octopuses-throw-things-male-harassers-180978548/  "Scientists have discovered that female octopuses will "throw" objects at males when feeling harassed. When an annoying male enters the scene, a female octopus will gather projectiles like shells or silt using her tentacles before launching the debris with a siphon of water. " (smithsonian)

as you can see females are known to throw rocks at one another when they feel anger or when males want to mate with the female.
while throwing rocks is something that happens it is not random. females do this when provoked throwing rocks will not happen when unprovoked or in random times.

Answer 6

I found that this is an exaggerated claim 

The source is from an online social media post, which isn't a scientific source. This post is found to have AI and even though the action of throwing is true, females do not throw rocks. The social media posts give no evidence or context to the idea of female octopuses throwing rocks at males. 

My primary source is an article from PLOS One, where they conduct their own study on octopuses throwing objects. This direct research article calls them “throws”, where some throws seem to be targeted at others and the throws contain algae and shells. Nothing mentions the use of rocks. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276482

A trustworthy source I found from BBC says that they “threw things like shells, algae and silt with their arms, pushed along in the water with a force created from under their arm web.” From my research, it seems like throwing rocks would be too heavy for them to do with their arms. 

The claim of female octopuses throwing rocks at males seems very exaggerated because through my research, nothing claims that they throw rocks but instead they throw other debris and objects found in the ocean that sometimes hit males. 

Answer 7

While it has been observed that female octopuses throw things at males, the video in question is AI.  Octopuses don't typically throw human-like baseball pitches when throwing rocks at the opposite gender.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/female-octopuses-throw-things-male-harassers-180978548/

The person who posted the fake video most likely hoped to clickbait unsuspecting scrollers into interacting with their content, and therefore their revenue (assuming that they were able to make money off of the content, or fame/virality.