I’m going to take a hurricane pass on this one, because my work life has been consumed with hurricane prep the week before, worrying about my animals during the hurricane itself, and cleaning up from the aftermath of the hurricane, which makes for a very tired Amanda!
Thankfully, this little kraken and our other animals are did well in the storm-though our facility is a complete mess! We are slowly but surely getting everything back to normal. Our outdoor areas have the most work to be done, but we got really lucky. Preparation, backup generators, our emergency team, and the storm moving slightly off the coast were out saving grace.
So, long story short, Happy World Octopus Day from myself and this little cutie! Amazed doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel about these incredible, diverse, fantastic, and intriguing animals.
I had the most amazing time when @lyriumglow visited me from NZ two months ago. We did so many fun things together. I took her to my local mini zoo, and we were somehow lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time throughout the entire day. We were the only people at the lemur enclosure when a zookeeper passed by and asked us if we wanted to feed the lemurs. So we got these adorable babies all to ourselves ♥ We also stroked fallow deer and got intensely nibbled by horses.
Generally, male octopuses have an arm modified to deliver a packet of sperm. They insert this arm into the females’ mantle and deposit that sperm. They often try to stay as far away from each other as possible because cannibalism is always a possibility. In the video above, the octopus are mating beak-to-beak— which is very strange, but very cool. So cool that we wrote paper about it.
An epic fight between an octopus and an eel led the snorkeler at risk, as the frightened and defeated eel started swimming directly at him with its jaw open.
If you watch it closely, you can see that the eel managed to tear off one of the octopus’s arm.
[Video of venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough standing amid vegetation. On a near-horizontal branch above his head is a brown and yellow greater bird of paradise, about the size of a crow, with big floaty yellow plumage puffing out along its back.]
Bird: Pwuk. Pwuk. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely – Bird (hopping along the branch): WUKWUKWUkwukwukwukoooh. Oooh. Oooh.
[Cut. Same shot.]
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely, is one – Bird: Kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely –
[Cut. Same shot but the bird is on the other side now and venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough has his hand on the branch.]
Bird (hopping up and down on venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough’s fingers): Eh-eh. Eh-eh. Eh-urrrr. Eh-urrrr. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: Close up – Bird (hopping away from him): Tiktiktiktik. Tiktiktiktik. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – the plumes – Bird (hopping around): Huek. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – are truly – Bird: Huek. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – exquisite. Bird: Huek. Eh-eh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: The gauzy – Bird (hopping and spinning on the spot): HukWUKWUKWukwukoooh. Oooh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: …
[Cut. Same shot but the bird is back on the original side of the branch.]
Bird: Aark. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: Of course, by the eighteenth century – Bird: Ehhh. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – naturalists realized that birds of paradise – Bird (hops across to the other side of the branch) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – did have – Bird (hopping back again): Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – legs. Even so – Bird: WUKWUKWUKWukwukwukooh.
[Cut. Same shot.] Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (apparently trying to tickle the bird’s tummy): – by about the eighteenth century – Bird (hops away and spins round) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – and so – Bird: AAAAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK aaak. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (wearily): … Very well.
[Cut. Same shot.]
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – but Karl Linnaeus, the great – Bird (vibrating rapidly on the spot and then flapping its wings): PWAAAAAAAK. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – classifier of the natural world – Bird: AAAAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAUUH. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – when he came to allocate a scientific name – Bird: … Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – to this bird – Bird: … Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – called it – Bird: Wooo-ooo. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – wooo-ooo – Bird (surveys the surroundings with a dignified turn of the head) Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: ‘paradisia apoda’: the bird of paradise – Bird: Hoooo. Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – without legs. Bird: Eh-eh.
I’ve been planning to teach students how to describe videos and write transcripts and I shall save this post for this very purpose.
Yes, I did reblog this yesterday too. It’s good.
For teaching: ???
I think I’ve skipped this video so many times in the past. Thank you, transcriptionist. Please do not skip this video again, friends. I am laughing til tears form in my eyes.
Fisheye Focus offers us a stunning mating sequence of our beloved mimic octopus. It is nice to see a video not only showing the shape-shifting nature of this cephalopod !
