05 4 / 2020

01 9 / 2019

This octopus vulgaris was spotted crawling a Topsail Beach (North Carolina).

I just love seeing those arms work. Remember that there is no centralised brain here, but somehow those eight protuberances all find a way to work together to move the body to the sea. How awesome !

The little guy finally made it to the waters, stayed a while and disappeared with the high tide.

25 8 / 2019

Just an octopus hunting a crab ^^
A tiny bit of scientific details (you know me): to feed, the octopus envelopes the crab and bites it with its beak, cracking its shell into pieces. At the same time, the salivary glands release a neurotoxin to...

Just an octopus hunting a crab ^^

A tiny bit of scientific details (you know me): to feed, the octopus envelopes the crab and bites it with its beak, cracking its shell into pieces. At the same time, the salivary glands release a neurotoxin to paralyse the prey. Then, the octopus has to wait a certain amount of time for enzymes to liquefy the crab’s insides, so it can finally lick it out with his radula… Crab milkshake time !

[video source] [feeding details source]

11 8 / 2019

09 8 / 2019

The burrowing octopus

I am sure you saw this gif somewhere before:

What you may not know is that this is a unique skill of the sand octopus. Other octopuses are known to hide into the sand. However, to still be able to breath, they remain close to the sediment surface, with their funnel sticking out. This one is different.

First, the sand octopus uses its water jets to create quicksand and thus is able to disappear in a matter of seconds, using far less energy. Second, it has a clever way of creating little burrows, so it can really hide away.

→ link to full resolution image

Burrowing is really unique to this species, and one suspect they developed this skill because, unlike many other octopus species, it lacks camouflage skills.

For sources and more information:

very nice article on newscientist.com
link to the original research paper

08 8 / 2019

A nice coconut octopus walking on two arms.

This is not the only specie showing this behavior, algae octopuses do this as well (and maybe others). But why ?

When octopuses jet away, the internal pressure inside their body sac is so high it stops their hearts briefly. Aside from avoiding cardiac arrest, “walking away” allows them to use two of their arms for locomotion and the other six for camouflage (e.g. make their shape unrecognisable). This is at least the explanation of Chrissy Huffard, a Senior Researcher at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

If you are interested, have a look at this awesome video:

12 2 / 2019

The artist Masayo Fukuda has been practicing the art of Kirie (切り絵 - literally ‘cut picture’, the Japanese art of paper-cutting - for 25 years. This amazing octopus is (from her own words) her greatest masterpiece of 2018.

Although the intricate piece looks like several layers overlapped, Fukuda stayed true to the conventional form, using only a single sheet of paper to render her detailed depiction of an octopus [source].

This is truly beautiful. Look at the level of details !

More details and information: https://www.kirie-masayo.com/entry/2018/12/30/031054

12 2 / 2019

An octopus escaping through a 1-inch hole :)

07 12 / 2018

20 10 / 2018

Octopuses recognise individual humans

Many mammals and birds can recognise individual humans, as well as some insects (did you know honeybees and cockroaches can, presumably using olfaction?), but the generality of human recognition abilities in invertebrates is unclear.

In 2010, however, a group of scientists proved that octopuses can remember how individual people treated them, hence demonstrating they can discriminate between human individuals.

The pdf of the study report is available here.

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