Times of the Islands Winter 2023/24

green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
The eight arms of an octopus are used in a wide variety
of tasks, including for locomotion, investigating their
surroundings, and to aid in camouflage or mimicry, as
well as for catching prey and passing it to the mouth.
Intriguingly, the arms do not just have the ability to feel
an octopod’s surroundings—they can also taste and
smell, thanks to dozens to thousands of flexible suckers
lined with receptors like taste buds. These sensory
abilities help octopods navigate in their environment,
identify mates, and flush out hidden prey. Individual octopods
often favor particular arms for certain tasks, much
the same way humans are usually right- or left-handed
for writing and throwing. To help differentiate between
them, researchers refer to the four arms on the left side
of the octopus as LI, LII, LIII, and LIV from front to back
and RI, RII, RIII, and RIV on the right.
. . . And I would walk 500 (nautical) miles:
Why an octopus walks bipedally
When they move around, many species of octopods
change their color and texture in order to blend into
their surroundings or to disrupt their telltale outline as
they pass over different types of sea floor, such as sand,
coral, or rock. To prevent their motion from giving their
presence away, they will also often move at a measured
pace, taking their time and avoiding sudden movements
that might attract a predator’s attention. Octopus cyanea,
the day octopus, for example, spreads its webbed arms,
creeps slowly, and changes its body pattern in order
to appear to be a moving rock in order to traverse an
C.E. O’Brien photographed this Octopus insularis off South Caicos at
the moment when it inks and begins to jet away from danger.
open stretch of territory. But sometimes octopods need
something quicker. For instance, to escape an attack, an
octopus may “jet” away by forcefully blowing water out
of the siphon, propelling its body rapidly in the opposite
direction, often expelling ink as it flees.
There are also times when they need to move quickly
but still want to remain disguised. This is where mimicry
and masquerade, in which octopods pretend to be
something they are not in order to avoid being noticed or
recognized by a predator, can come into play. The aptly
named Mimic Octopus is the octopod poster child of this
ability, as it can impersonate several other species, ranging
from deadly sea snakes to the prickly and venomous
lionfish. This tactic, known as Batesian mimicry, allows
the mimic octopus to appear dangerous or inedible to
C.E. O’BRIEN
LAETITIA ROSSIGNOL
This Image of an octopod (left) and image of floating algae (right) show how the octopod can masquerade as an organism that is relatively
uninteresting to predators.
34 www.timespub.tc
C.E. O’BRIEN