Octopus' Garden

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I’d like to be, under the sea
In an octopus’s garden in the shade
The Beatles

This semester as I travel around the Caribbean I am going to be posting blogs on some of the weird and wonderful creatures and the exotic vegetation I see along the way. Today I’m starting with the ‘Common Octopus’, although believe me there is nothing common about this bizarre animal.

If you snorkel through the turquoise Caribbean waters, you may be lucky enough to spot a jumble of shells and rubble surrounding a deep dark crevice in the reef. Swim a little closer and watch out for the baleful eye of the octopus as it peers at you from its cramped hiding place deep in the reef. The tight space into which an octopus can fit takes some believing; if you look around the eye you will see the suckers of the arms wrapped tightly around the head holding on ever so tight to the rock to stop you or any predator from extracting it from its home.

The octopus is nocturnal, and so hides during the light of day, but heads out on the reef at night slinking and sliding across the sea bed in search of food. Once it comes across a tasty looking crab or shell it uses strong jaws that look like an upside down parrot’s beak, to crunch through or pierce the tough outer covering, exposing the tasty flesh beneath. The shells encircling the entrance of the octopus’ lair, are all that remain of the creature’s last few meals.

Octopi are experts in camouflage. Have you ever tried to hide down the end of the garden when your mum wants you to tidy your room? Well you could learn a few tricks from the cunning octopus which can blend into the background quick as a flash. Their skin is covered in little pigment cells, which are like sacs of dark coloured ink. When the octopus wants to disappear against a dark surface it lets these little sacs spread out across the whole skin surface giving them an instant tan. Then when they crawl across a stretch of gleaming white sand, the sacs scrunch up concentrating the ink over a very small area leaving the skin a pale shade of cream. If this attempt at hiding isn’t sufficient they can revert to plan B: shooting out a cloud of ink in the general shape of a swimming octopus, and then zipping off using jet propulsion leaving any enemies floundering confused in the cloud of ink!

So if you ever come across an octopus don’t underestimate their abilities; they are professional escape artists, whether they hide deep in the reef or choose to outdo a chameleon by changing colour!

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