Cuttlefish can change color to fade into the background. It can do it amazingly fast.
Stomp stomp
That’s a pikmin enemy
cthulhu made some tiny elephants and they are AMAZING
This is a flamboyant cuttlefish. It’s not changing to blend in, they don’t blend. They have those “don’t eat me I’m toxic” colors. This is probably akin to a facial expression, cuttles use their colors for expressions and communication just as much as camo.
Because every color is a different wavelength, it’s possible to have a lens focused in such a way that only one color at a time is clear and others are blurry.
So it seems that the eyes of cephalopods rapidly “sweep” across every possible level of focus. It might all look like different shades of grey to them, but in just an instant, their powerful brain registers exactly which shades of grey come clear at exactly which levels of focus and tells the skin which chromatophores to switch on and off to match that shade as close as possible. *focusfocusfocusfocusblurblurblurblurblurblur* I don’t know what these other assholes are seeing but THESE greys in THIS situation sure seem to confuse them”
Ever wonder what life is like as a cephalopod aquarist?
Our Tentacles exhibition is the largest living collection on cephalopods on display in the world—and keeping up with its tenants is colossal (squid) amount of work! Take a look behind the scenes with our Squid Squad and find out what it takes to care for our cuttle puddle of cephalopods.
It takes an ink-redible amount of work and knowledge to raise baby cephalopods. But as our cephalopod aquarists will tell you, it’s worth it!
Cephalopods are superlative and sneaky assassins, using countless tricks to catch unsuspecting critters.
Sign up for our texting program when you’re here to catch these hunters in action in our Tentacles exhibit. Text the word “experience” to 56512 to find out when our exhibits are being fed!
their arms are similar to our tongues in that their muscle fibers are oriented in three different directions
octopuses are disconcertingly strong (anecdotal evidence says that a 15 inch wide octopus was as strong as the scientist handling it)
on that note that same scientist said that when her octopuses escaped she would have to run behind them, “like cats” (paraphrased from sy montgomery’s the soul of an octopus)
aquariums have “octopus enriching programs” so they don’t get bored and fuck shit up in their tanks
they are crazy smart like. really. really fucking smart
but we can’t compare their intelligence to ours because our evolution branched from the same common ancestor so long ago we cannot comprehend how they think
it’s believed that their intelligence evolved when they lost their shell, and had to adapt to predict how countless of different prey and predators would act, how to avoid them, distract them, lure them or trick them
they visualize how other creatures are going to act, which means they have have awareness that others are individuals which is a type of consciousness but i can’t remember what it’s called right now
like, they use tools
they have distinct personalities
aquarium octopuses are socialized from a very young age and even though in the wild they are solitary creatures they become extremely friendly with enough human exposure
sometimes they dislike people for no apparent reason and will shoot water at them
they have three hearts
each of their arms has a tiny brain that controls movement and sensory input on its own i shit you not
they are color blind and yet they can camouflage their color and nobody knows how
they can change the color and texture of their skin faster than human eyes can keep up with it
great pacific octopuses are white when they are peaceful, and red when they’re excited
aquarium octopus have escaped their tanks and slithered down pipes into the ocean
escaped their tanks to eat the fish in other tanks
escaped their tanks to go fight other octopuses cuz they were bored
octopus fight club
learned how to take photographs
cost thousands of dollars by flooding new floors
they can feel, taste, and smell with their suckers and all of their skin
they enjoy tasting their food by slowly moving it through their suckers instead of shoving it in their beaks
they can rewrite their rna. no, really
the only reason why they haven’t evolved to take over as the next dominant race is because they’re doing pretty well in the ocean so there’s no need for them to adapt further
there’s a ton more but i’m so overwhelmed by love i can’ think of any at the moment i’m going to cry
read the soul of an octopus by sy mongomery no she didn’t pay me i just love octopuses so much
Ever wonder what life is like as a cephalopod aquarist?
Our Tentacles exhibition is the largest living collection on cephalopods on display in the world—and keeping up with its tenants is colossal (squid) amount of work! Take a look behind the scenes with our Squid Squad and find out what it takes to care for our cuttle puddle of cephalopods.
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