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ARE OCTOPUSES SENTIENT?
BBC Science Focus
|September 2024
If you've watched the Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher or been lucky enough to encounter an octopus in the wild, you'll know there's something special about them.
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There's a certain look in their eyes and a sense that they're curious animals leading complex lives.
Since 2022, it's been enshrined in UK law that octopuses - along with all vertebrates and a few other invertebrates - are sentient beings. They're now legally recognised as having the capacity to feel things such as pleasure, comfort, pain and fear.
This story is from the September 2024 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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