You are in the ocean, with sharks and other predators wanting to make you a tasty snack. How would you avoid death or injury?
Like us as humans, soft-bodied octopuses look relatively defenseless – they don’t have hard-shelled shells like their snail and scallop cousins.
Instead, they have developed progressive strategies to survive and outnumber their predators.
And while their alien-like bodies may look like nightmarish stuff, the information and beauty is nothing short of awful.
Great talent for captivity
An octopus can disappear immediately if a shark or sting emerges at the heels that do not exist at all.
His flexible body can go through the smallest cracks to get away from predators.
And it uses camouflage to keep an image low to avoid being eaten or when attacking prey.
Octopuses can change the texture and color of the skin to become invisible by imitating rocks or algae.
“They have an amazing ability to impose themselves on charges,” says octopus expert Jan Strugnell of James Cook University.
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They can also cover themselves in shells to protect them and eliminate predators by looking like reefs.
Some are famous for carrying around two halves of coconut shells as a portable home for retrieval.
Others can spout out a cloud of ink to hide behind you and hot-pursued predators.
And some can walk ashore when they need to.
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Strong poison to repel the prey
Octopuses have also developed another device in their fight for survival: poison.
This is especially useful for surviving the cutting and straining of the hunt.
An octopus usually hunts by lowering the victim and wrapping his or her arms around him or her.
But prey usually does not go down without a fight, especially if it is equipped with claws, like a crab.
Venom, extracted in salivary glands, can be used to paralyze prey before damaging the soft body of the octopus.
Below an octopus is a beak, used to crush prey and inject poison.
The poison of the different species of blue-ringed octopus is the only one that is deadly to humans, and evidence shows that it is produced by bacteria that live in the animal’s salivary gland.
An octopus can also use its rasp-like tongue (radula) to drill a hole into their prey to deliver the poison more efficiently – this is often evidenced as oval-shaped holes in shells. the beach.
And it also incorporates a digestive enzyme into their prey to break down food into a liquid that can be digested properly for dinner.
Nine brains make them smart
An octopus has nine brains, which explains why it is considered the most intelligent invertebrate alive, sometimes resembling dog smarts.
In addition to a donut-shaped brain in the middle, its cloud cells are spread across its eight arms covered with suckers capable of sensing the environment.
So even though octopuses have good vertebra-like eyes, they still know what’s going on without using the sight.
In fact, octopus arms are so independent that for about an hour after one is separated from the main body they will continue to grab food and try to deliver to a mouth that does not exist at all.
And three hearts are making them fast
An octopus needs to move fast to get away quickly from a predator.
He can fly away in a jiffy thanks to three hearts that pump blood swiftly around his system.
Sadly, however, octopuses don’t last long – five years at most.
Dr Strugnell says most octopus live for a year and die shortly after breeding.
“It’s amazing to do all these wonderful things in such a short time. “