The Observer, April 11, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 24
News You Can't Use
Study: Octopuses kinky creatures of the sea
San Francisco's marine biologists studying octopuses in Indonesia have discovered a kinky and violent society of jealous murderers, gender subterfuge, and once-in-a-lifetime sex.
The study, produced by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that wild octopuses are not the shy, unromantic lovers their captive kin seem to be.
Watching the Abdopus aculeatus octopuses, which are roughly the size of an orange, researchers saw picky males carefully select a mate, then guard their domestic home so fiercely that they often strangled romantic rivals with their 8- to 10-inch tentacles. The findings were recently reported in the journal Marine Biology.
Scientists also observed smaller, sneakier males parade on the bottom of the ocean floor in a girlish manner, keeping their male brown stripes hidden, in order to win unsuspecting conquests.
Researchers found that size does matter.
"If you're going to spend time guarding a female, you want to go for the biggest female you can find because she's going to produce more eggs," said UC Berkeley biologist Roy Caldwell, co-write of the study. "It's basically an investment strategy."
Shortly after the female gives birth (about a month after conception), both the mother and father die.
"It's not the sex that leads to death," said Christine Huffard, the study's lead author. "It's just that octopuses produce offspring once during a very short lifespan of a year."
Both wives divorce Malaysian man at the same time
When Roslan Ngah of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, took a second wife, he didn't realize how well the two spouses would get along. The two women got along so well they decided to leave Ngah at the same time.
Because of their united stand, Roslan, a 44-year-old Malaysian Muslim, divorced his two wives, ages 46 and 35, in an Islamic Shariah Court last week, a lawyer said.
Islamic law allows men to have up to four wives. A woman can submit a request to divorce her husband, but the final pronouncement of the divorce must come from the husband or court.
Salwa Mansor, the second wife's lawyer, said the wives both cited irreconcilable differences among other issues.
The Star Daily quoted Roslan as saying he knew the two wives had become very close over the years.
"They are like good friends but I never imagined that both of them had collectively decided to divorce me," said Roslan. "I never expected our marriages to end in this manner."
Roslan has six children total: four with his first wife and two with his second. He states that he would get married again, "God willing."
"If my fate says so, I have no qualms, and this time I hope that my marriage will last forever," he told The Star.
