# Octopuses do geometry when eating prey with shells To eat prey with shells, octopuses spend hours drilling a tiny hole with their beak and inject a venom from their salivary glands. Yes, [[Octopuses have beaks]]. The interesting thing is that they don't drill holes the same way with different types of prey. > The idea was that in order to “hit” the underlying target tissue with sufficient venom (e.g. the muscle they use to cling on tightly to a rock) octopuses would have to drill different prey species of differently-sized and shaped muscles at different levels of precision. First, in the Abalone the large muscle under the shell would be a big target, hence an octopus would not need to choose the drilling location very precisely. Secondly, this area would be relatively smaller in a Kelp limpet that has a smaller attachment muscle. Thirdly, we saw an even smaller target area in the Helmet snail. If this was true then this would also mean that octopuses would somehow need to “measure” where to drill – they would have to do some kind of basic maths and geometry! ![[Octopus drill shells heatmap.png]] ## Road signs - [[Cephalopods]] --- Sources: [Save Our Seas foundation](https://saveourseas.com/update/can-an-octopus-do-geometry/)