Octopus (Orphan Born but Highly Intelligent)

Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes, and eight long arms. They live in all the world’s oceans but are especially abundant in warm, tropical waters. Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep,” though some species, or types, occupy relatively shallow waters.

Most octopuses stay along the ocean’s floor, although some species are pelagic, which means they live near the water’s surface. Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters, rising from below at dawn and dusk to search for food. Crabs, shrimps, and lobsters rank among their favorite foods, though some can attack larger prey, like sharks. Octopuses typically drop down on their prey from above and, using powerful suctions that line their arms, pull the animal into their mouth.

Octopuses bring captured prey to the den, where they can eat it safely. Sometimes the octopus catches more prey than it can eat, and the den is often surrounded by a midden of dead and uneaten food items. Other creatures, such as fish, crabs, mollusks, and echinoderms, often share the den with the octopus, either because they have arrived as scavengers, or because they have survived capture. On rare occasions, octopuses hunt cooperatively with other species, with fish as their partners.

Nearly all octopuses are predatory; bottom-dwelling octopuses eat mainly crustaceans, polychaete worms, and other mollusks such as whelks and clams.

Octopuses use camouflage when hunting and to avoid predators. To do this they use specialized skin cells which change the appearance of the skin by adjusting its color, opacity, or reflectivity. Chromatophores contain yellow, orange, red, brown, or black pigments; most species have three of these colors, while some have two or four. Other color-changing cells are reflective iridophores and white leucophores. This color-changing ability is also used to communicate with or warn other octopuses.

Aside from humans, octopuses may be preyed on by fishes, seabirds, sea otters, pinnipeds, cetaceans, and other cephalopods. Strategies to defend themselves against predators include the expulsion of ink, the use of camouflage and threat displays, the ability to jet quickly through the water and hide, and even deceit. When the octopus is approached, it may extend an arm to investigate. When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy. The crawling arm may distract would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations. Octopuses can replace lost limbs. An octopus may spend 40% of its time hidden away in its den.

Most species are solitary when not mating. the male uses a specially adapted arm to deliver a bundle of sperm directly into the female's mantle cavity. About forty days after mating, the female octopus attaches strings of small fertilized eggs to rocks in a crevice or under an overhang. Here she guards and cares for them for about five months until they hatch. The female aerates the eggs and keeps them clean, if left untended, many eggs will not hatch. She does not feed during this time and dies soon afterward. Males become senescent and die a few weeks after mating.

Octopuses are highly intelligent. It is not known precisely what contribution learning makes to adult octopus behavior. Young octopuses learn nothing from their parents, as adults provide no parental care beyond tending to their eggs until the young octopuses hatch.

#Nature #KelpForest #PyjamaShark