When asked about an animal that I admire and find surprising, the octopus immediately comes to mind. If you’re not familiar with them yet, I hope this post will open a window of curiosity and surprise.
The more I learn about octopuses, the more my mind is blown. They possess so many incredible qualities and abilities that there’s always something new to discover.
Don’t get me wrong—many other animals amaze me, too. But each of them tends to have just one or two remarkable features. The octopus, however, seems to have many, and they’re all incredibly well-coordinated.
And of course, saying all this, I can’t but mention at least some of them:
- Their camouflage is not only able to change colors, but texture and shape of the skin too. This makes them blends in perfectly in any environment. But also imitate other animals as they need.
- Intelligent as they can only be on their own. And it’s not that they can be good at learning from others of their group or species. Or from other animals. But they learn all on their own during their life time. It is not an intelligence based on learning like ours. But an “intrinsic” logical thinking that they develop as living as solitary animals, acquiring it since they hatch the egg.
- A short life, full of challenges, with the only goal of reproducing. This is, as after mating, the male will fade and die. While the female will spend the rest of her life next to eggs. Staying steady next to them until they hatch. Not eating or moving, just making the water flow to keep the eggs oxygenated.
- An almost incomparable regeneration capacity. For them, losing a tentacle is not a problem. Not just due to having many…but because they’ll grow again if a predator manages to take them.
- Even with larger sizes, they can enter through really small holes. The lack of bones (except their moth beak) allows them to be extremely malleable. This makes easy for them to escape, hide from predators without many efforts.
- A next step to their intelligence is making use of their animals for their own benefit. Just as a quick example: they manipulate and handle certain fishes with the goal of find food that they’ll share later. The octopus orchestrates them in order to make the hunting more efficient.
- But not just being intelligent while awake. A capacity that not many animals have, or hasn’t been shown, is dreaming. This can be hard to show or notice, as it’s something happening inside a brain. But they’ve been observed changing colors while sleeping. Indicating that they can be preparing for or thinking of situations they could encounter later on.
- Even at the physiological level, they’re fascinating. They have a total of 3 hearts!! This is something special already, but with their 8 limbs or tentacles, it might be obvious in order to pump them with blood (which is blue blood btw). Although the amazing part comes on how these tentacles are controlled. And it is cause they have 9 brains!!! Yes, nine. Intelligent animals (like mammals or corvids) have a centralized nervous systems, from which peripherical parts are controlled. But octopi have a brain to control each tentacle, which thinks on its own. And then a central brain to coordinate all of them. This is alike computer chips, reason for which some neural networks in AI are being based on these animals nervous systems.
- And another interesting part, it’s their vision. Not only using the two eyes on their head. But they also can sense light with their skin. And the eyes have only 1 type of color receptor, for which theoretically can see only Black&White. But using a mechanical change in depths, they manage to see colors too. Just fascinating.
- To finish, I’ll just mention their diversity. You’ll find them in many sizes and shapes. Their life expectancy is not that long, but can last from 1 to 5 years. And also they can be extremely venomous.
And surely, with all that said, I am probably forgetting something…
Even their plural is a mystery! Octopi, octopuses, octopodes??? Well, all forms are somehow accepted and correct. But maybe this difficulty come from the fact that they spend most of their life alone. As solitary animals, that survive and learn on its own, getting together only when they are to mate.
Octopuses have always amazed me. I’m fortunate to have not just studied them through a screen, but also observed them in person. As a curious diver, I’ve had many opportunities to interact with them, watching them in their natural habitat and even feeling their presence on my skin.
This fascination with octopuses inspired my (for now favorite) tattoo, which you can see next to this text. I got it done in Vietnam, where the octopus is often represented as creative, adaptable, and full of energy. But that’s a story for another post!
Just stay connected and don’t miss it 😉
Wonderer Cosmos 
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