# data[].attributes.body
By an octopus named Inky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A great escape. By an octopus named Inky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A popular octopus has pulled off a great escape from the National Aquarium. Inky the common octopus took advantage of his tank's lid being left slightly ajar three months ago and fled to the Pacific Ocean. The manager of the Napier aquarium, Rob Yarrall, says Inky's getaway through a small pipe was no mean feat.

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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,…

# data[].attributes.body
Wonderopolis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Today's question might have struck you as a little odd. But let's face it. If you have an with you - whether you're at school or in your room - you're probably going to need to it. After all, there aren't many parents or teachers who are going to you carrying around an .

Luckily for you, octopuses are already pretty good at hiding themselves. Well, at least they're good at hiding themselves in their natural watery environment. They might not be so good at hiding themselves in your classroom or your bedroom closet.

Octopuses - like many wild animals - often use as a defense mechanism. Impersonating something else, whether it's a coral reef, plants or the sea floor, can help an avoid predators and stay out of trouble.

Even though octopuses are color blind, they can change their color and even their shape to match closely with their surroundings. This is a form of camouflage that has to be seen to be believed.

Some people find octopuses intimidating. With their eight tentacles and huge heads, they can look a little scary. Their soft bodies, though, are a delicious meal for many types of predators, including sharks and sting rays.

But those soft, boneless bodies also allow octopuses to change color and shape to avoid those predators. Octopuses have special skin cells called chromatophores all over their bodies. These chromatophores are full of yellow, red, brown and black . Octopuses learn at an early age how to contract their muscles to change both their color and their shape.

They can their bodies to look like the smooth sea floor or a coral reef. Even though they're color blind, they can also change their color to blend in with their surroundings. Isn't it amazing how creatures can learn to from their enemies?

Although all octopuses can camouflage themselves, one in particular has turned the skill of camouflage into an art form. The mimic , first discovered by scientists in 1998, is the first known to be able to purposefully copy the appearance of multiple different species.

Because it lives in the open waters off the coasts of Indonesia and Malaysia and hunts during the day, the mimic doesn't have many places to from predators. As a result, it has learned to mimic common venomous species, such as lionfish and sea snakes. In total, scientists believe the mimic can imitate up to 13 different species, including jellyfish, anemones and mantis shrimp.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today's question might have struck you as a little odd. But let's face it. If you have an with you - whether you're at school or in your room - you're probably going to need to it. After all, there aren't many parents or teachers who are going to you carrying around an .

# data[].attributes.body
Time for Kids

# data[].attributes.body
Discovery Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watch a Camouflaged Octopus Mimic Its Surroundings While Hunting

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ever wish you could change shape and color the way the cyanea octopus can?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Octopus escaping through a 1 inch diameter hole

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Here's an animal that's really making a splash. Rambo the octopus recently learned to take photographs using a waterproof digital camera mounted to the side of her tank at Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand.

Animal behaviorist Mark Vette and his team used a buzzer to train Rambo to take pictures. First the team allowed the octopus to eat yummy snacks such as mussels, crabs, and fish every time they sounded the buzzer. Within three days, Rambo associated hearing a buzzing noise with receiving a treat.

Then Vette's team placed the camera in Rambo's tank. Once this device was installed, they no longer let Rambo have a treat right after they set off the buzzer. Instead, the team taught the octopus that she had to click the shutter on the camera before getting the goodie. Now whenever she wants a delicious snack Rambo snaps the camera, often capturing pictures of visitors outside her tank.

Training the octopus to be a photographer took about eight weeks. According to Vette, the hardest part was building the case that held the camera inside the tank. It had to be tough enough to withstand regular examinations by the curious and strong creature. The trainers went through a dozen different versions, and Rambo destroyed two cameras in the process.

Luckily the team developed an octopus-proof case that protects the marine creature's camera. And Rambo continues to enjoy snapping pics. Sounds like this critter and her camera really clicked.

Text from "Is This Picture-Taking Octopus as Smart as She Seems?" by Jane J. Lee, NGS Staff
Adapted by Rose Davidson, NGS Staff

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's an animal that's really making a splash. Rambo the octopus recently learned to take photographs using a waterproof digital camera mounted to the side of her tank at Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand. Animal behaviorist Mark Vette and his team used a buzzer to train Rambo to take pictures.

# data[].attributes.body
Smithsonian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Octopuses, those whip-smart but bizarre cephalopods, seem to embody everything creepy and mysterious about the sea-the thought of their soft squishy bodies lurking in the oceans' dark reaches has inspired monsters ranging from the Kraken to the Caribbean Lusca. Their otherworldly forms, heightened by unfurling arms, find their way into more modern monsters and villains too-think Disney's sea witch Ursula or Spider-Man's Doc Oc. And don't forget the octopus-themed horror movies!

A new book, Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea, by Katherine Harmon Courage, comes out today. Harmon Courage takes a deep dive into all things octopus, ranging from their culinary use in dishes around the world to their tragic sex lives. Here, we highlight a few of the fascinating points covered in the book.

1) Octopuses are waaay old. The oldest known octopus fossil belongs to an animal that lived some 296 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. That specimen belongs to a species named Pohlsepia and is on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Harmon Courage describes it as a "flattened cow patty" or a "globular splat," but a close examination reveals the tell-tale eight arms and two eyes. Researchers aren't sure, but possibly there's an ink sack there, too. In other words, long before life on land had progressed beyond puny pre-dinosaur reptiles, octopuses had already established their shape for the millions of years to come.

2) Octopuses have three hearts. Two of the hearts work exclusively to move blood beyond the animal's gills, while the third keeps circulation flowing for the organs. The organ heart actually stops beating when the octopus swims, explaining the species' penchant for crawling rather than swimming, which exhausts them.

3) The plural of octopus is octopuses. The world "octopus" comes from the Greek, okt ópus, meaning "eight foot." The word's Greek roots means it's pluralized as a Greek word, too, which depends on both a noun's gender and the last letter it ends with. In this case, an -es is simply tacked on. So no octopi, octopodes or octopussies, Harmon Courage points out.

4) Aristotle thought octopuses were dumb. In his History of Animals, written in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher wrote that "The octopus is a stupid creature, for it will approach a man's hand if it be lowered in the water; but it is neat and thrifty in its habits: that is, it lays up stores in its nest, and, after eating up all that is eatable, it ejects the shells and sheaths of crabs and shell-fish, and the skeletons of little fishes." After describing a few more quirks of octopus life history-it ejects ink for self-defense, it's slimy, it can crawl on land-he flippantly signs off, "So much for the mollusca." However, the big-brained cephalopod can navigate through mazes, solve problems and remember solutions, and take things apart for fun-they even have distinct personalities.

5) Octopus arms have a mind of their own. Two-thirds of an octopus' neurons reside in its arms, not its head. As a result, the arms can problem solve how to open a shellfish while their owners are busy doing something else, like checking out a cave for more edible goodies. The arms can even r eact after they've been completely severed. In one experiment, severed arms jerked away in pain when researchers pinched them.

6) Octopus ink doesn't just hide the animal. The ink also physically harms enemies. It contains a compound called tyrosinase, which, in humans, helps to control the production of the natural pigment melanin. But when sprayed in a predator's eyes, tyrosinase causes a blinding irritation. It also garbles creatures' sense of smell and taste. The defensive concoction is so potent, in fact, that octopuses that do not escape their own ink cloud can die.

7) Octopuses have blue blood. To survive in the deep ocean, octopuses evolved a copper rather than iron-based blood called hemocyanin, which turns its blood blue. This copper base is more efficient at transporting oxygen then hemoglobin when water temperature is very low and not much oxygen is around. But this system also causes them to be extremely sensitive to changes in acidity. If the surrounding water's pH dips too low, octopuses can't circulate enough oxygen. As such, researchers worry about what will happen to the animals as a result of climate change-induced ocean acidification.

8) Octopuses, to some, are erotic muses. Japan's notorious "tentacle erotica" traces back to an 1814 woodblock print (potentially NSFW) titled Tako to Ama, or "Octopus and the Shell Diver." According to Courage, the image takes inspiration from a legend about a female shell diver who is chased by sea creatures, included octopuses, after attracting the eye of a sea dragon god.

9) After mating, it's game over for octopuses. Mating and parenthood are brief affairs for octopuses, who die shortly after. The species practices external fertilization. Multiple males either insert their spermatophores directly into a tubular funnel that the female uses to breathe, or else literally hand her the sperm, which she always accepts with one of her right arm (researchers do not know why). Afterwards, males wander off to die. As for the females, they can lay up to 400,000 eggs, which they obsessively guard and tend to. Prioritizing their motherly duties, females stop eating. But she doesn't starve to death-rather,when the eggs hatch, the female's body turns on her. Her body undertakes a cascade of cellular suicide, starting from the optic glands and rippling outward through her tissues and organs until she dies.

10) Most octopus for human consumption comes from North and West Africa. Octopus has been a popular food item in East Asia, Spain, Greece and other countries for centuries, and recently, it has gained popularity in the U.S. and beyond. Today, Koreans consume the most octopus. But that popularity has had an impact on octopus stocks in oceans around the world. In Japan, for example, octopus catches plummeted by 50 percent between the 1960s and the 1980s. The international demand for octopus inspired North and West African fisheries to start targeting the animals in the 80s, although recently demand has taken a toll on those waters as well, shifting fisheries from Morocco to Mauritania and, more recently, Senegal. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, around 270,000 tons of octopus is imported by various countries around the world each year.

About Rachel Nuwer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Octopuses, those whip-smart but bizarre cephalopods, seem to embody everything creepy and mysterious about the sea-the thought of their soft squishy bodies lurking in the oceans' dark reaches has inspired monsters ranging from the Kraken to the Caribbean Lusca.