Quite odd, because octopi are usually nearly completely asocial creatures, unless they are coming together to mate.
Strange creatures generally, being so asocial, and yet so highly intelligent, intelligence is generally seen most in social animals, humans included (although that said, we auties have the edge on the rest of ya
hehe, just teasing, even if I am right ;P), I'd say that on a species level it even drives evolutionary development of greater intelligence, the social constructs in such creatures requiring intelligence to bring into being.
You'd also think that more intelligent creatures would tend towards being the longer lived creatures, that is to say, those species with a longer lifespan would have, in evolutionary terms, a greater benefit from having higher intelligence than species with a very short lifespan? and octopi do, they live for a maximum of about four maybe five years. It might be longer in the case of some which live in the deepest reaches of the abyssal trenches, given its very cold down there and there isn't much food, so deep sea life often has a very slow metabolic rate, a good example (and in a Cephalopod too) would be Vampyroteuthis, the so-called 'vampire squid from hell', most of the time it just floats, barely moving, only putting on a rapid burst of speed (which it can't maintain over time, AFAIK) when something edible floats by. And it seems to be the case in most animals that those with the lowest metabolic rates live longest, some tortoises can live over a century, and some giant clams even longer than that)
Quite an enigma IMO, the intelligence of octopi, non-social, short lifespan, what use is such an extremely highly developed (for an invertebrate) intelligence? I've even heard of them learning to squirt jets of salt water into electric mains outlets to short them out in order to sneak out of the tank under cover, slither out over the floor to a neighboring tank full of fish, stuff their faces and bugger off back again
And I can testify myself as to their exploratory instincts. Scuba diving in turkey, I thought *I* was the one doing the exploring, turned over this buggering great big sea snail shell to take a look at it's occupant, only it wasn't a foot-wide snail, it was a young common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), which promptly shot out of it's hole and clamped itself onto my face, I'll go out on a limb and say it looked just like the alien movies when a facehugger attacks someone, given its a pretty reasonable guess as to what it looks like, all I could see was suckers and the inside of an octopus at the time.
Wasn't hostile or aggressive, just very inquisitive, and, albeit its ascribing a humanized motivation to its actions, but it actually seemed quite playful, once it had gently been encouraged to make itself elsewhere than stuck on my face. Cute little thing it was, I've not eaten octopus since. Squid, I will, they aren't too bright, but in the case of octopodes, it seems a shame, wrong, to eat another sentient creature. I reckon they'd make fantastic pets, if it weren't for their really short lifespan.
As for gurning, no. That would be physically impossible when your face is a beak.
