Page 8 - Hobe Sound Reflections - June '24

Page 8, Hobe Sound

Book revieW

Secrets Of The Octopus creature so fascinating. eyes are actually color blind! It is the octopus’s skin that
Moreover, if a tentacle is senses the background’s colors and textures!
By Nils A. Shapiro lost it can grow back in two Officials at aquariums have learned that octopuses get
It seems to me that after to four months. And from bored very quickly and must be kept mentally challenged.
300 million years of their author Montgomery’s own For example, it takes them only minutes to learn how to
life on this planet, one and others’ experiences open a childproof cap on a prescription medication – press
of the most extraordinary we learn that these highly down, then turn – or a jar that holds a tempting treat, like
creatures to have ever intelligent octopuses are as a shrimp: unscrew the metal top by turning it counter-
existed is today, more than curious about us humans as clockwise. The answer is to provide different kinds of
ever, the focus of human we are about them. puzzles regularly, all year round.
attention. There are several Here are just a few Octopuses can distinguish between different human
reasons for such current examples of the hundreds faces and will bond with individual humans. I can
interest. One reason is of remarkable facts you personally attest to that. When my review of The Soul of
that – thanks to decades will discover in the pages an Octopus was published some years ago in this column,
of research by marine scientists – we now have more of this book (some text author Sy Montgomery (whom I had never met) called to
knowledge about octopuses’ remarkable intelligence has been omitted for lack of space and been replaced by thank me and asked if I would like to meet Sy, the octopus
and incredible range of abilities, several of which are ellipses). at the New England Aquarium in Boston that had been
described later in this review. “Boneless, venomous, and equipped with eight named after her. But, she cautioned, the octopus had laid
A book written by Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an powerful suckered arms (a single large sucker on the her 100,000 eggs and, as I would know from having read
Octopus, which I highly recommended in an earlier largest species, the giant Pacific, can lift 35 pounds – her book, since there are many predators in their natural
review, quickly climbed the bestseller lists in 25 countries and there are 200 on each arm), octopuses are gifted ocean habitat female octopuses instinctively spread their
around the world. with talents that seem so otherworldly you’d have to tentacles atop the eggs, stop foraging for their own food,
That book inspired a 27-year-old New Yorker, Warren go to outer space or science fiction to match them … and over a period of several months slowly starve to death
K. Carlyle – who had been fascinated by octopuses since Octopuses can taste with every inch of their skin. They to protect the babies.
was a young boy – to launch in 2015 an online octopus can squirt ink … as a smokescreen … They can drool a We met at the aquarium the following week. Sy
fan club and educational organization named OctoNation. muscle-dissolving acid and a neurotoxic venom … But the Montgomery had visited this octopus numerous times as part
Today, that club numbers more than a million members octopus’s hallucinatory ability to change color and shape of the research for her book. As soon as Sy the author stepped
worldwide. Carlyle has also written for this new book, is its signature superpower – one it can deploy faster than to the top of the tank, the octopus looked up and, as weak
Secrets of the Octopus, the informative and beautifully a human can blink an eye!” as she was from not eating, she raised a tentacle, wrapped it
illustrated OctoProfiles of 16 different octopus and An octopus can change its colors and overall skin around the author’s waist in greeting and kept it there.
cuttlefish species that follow the book’s major text. patterns to match any background it may be next to – After a while, Sy the author gently uncoiled the
To meet the demands of this worldwide attention, the various corals, rocks, sea grass, etc. – 100 times a minute, tentacle, turned to me and said, “It’s your turn, Nils.”
National Geographic Society has produced a television faster than a human can blink, in order to camouflage I stepped up to the tank and was handed a small fish, a
series, Secrets of the Octopus, which on April 21 began itself to hide from a predator … even though the octopus’s capelin – the octopus’s favorite food. A tentacle arose,
streaming on the Hulu and Disney channels. They wisely took it from my fingers … but dropped it into the water.
turned to the author of the earlier book, Sy Montgomery, She was already too weak to eat and was starving.
to write a new companion volume for their TV series. The tentacle arose again from the water and touched my
An interesting foreword has been added by Alex Schnell, hand. She was tasting me, right down to my bloodstream.
Ph.D., an Australian wildlife scientist and research I passed the test – and I was there with her friend, Sy
associate at the University of Cambridge. the author. So slowly and gently her tentacle, sucker by
While this gorgeous new volume, Secrets of the sucker, encircled my wrist, feeling like wet velvet, and
Octopus, is different from Montgomery’s earlier The stayed there as we looked at each other.
Soul of an Octopus in important ways, each offers its Soon, realizing that here was a creature as different
own special pleasures. Since this column is a review of from me as would be an alien from outer space – yet at
the new book, I will focus on that one here. least as intelligent as myself and greeting me in the only
The most obvious difference is that it takes advantage way she could – I began to speak silently to her, choking
of the National Geographic Society’s staff of explorer- back tears with every word: “Do you realize what’s
photographers to include more than 60 stunning full-page happening?” “Do you know you’re dying?” “You want
and double-spread color photos of octopuses in their to protect your babies, I know.” “I wish I could help,
natural habitats. There are more than 300 different species but there is nothing I can do.” Finally, the official from
worldwide, ranging in size from tentacle spreads of 2 the aquarium said it was time to go. I said my goodbye,
inches to 16 feet! uncoiled the tentacle and left.
Octopuses are technically members of the mollusk For many months after, I could not discuss what was
family, which also includes scallops, oysters, clams one of the most emotional experiences of my life without
and snails. But at some point during their evolution bursting into tears. It’s also why I fully related to Canadian
octopuses lost their shells and, like squid and cuttlefish, scuba diver Krystal Janicki’s description in this new book
are gelatinous – meaning they have no bones, which is of her own experience on one dive – an encounter with
how an octopus that has a tentacle spread of as much as 16 a giant Pacific octopus, which reads in part, “I forgot
feet can escape from its tank in an aquarium by squeezing everything else existed … One arm is up and over my
through a hole as small as 2 inches round! cheek and holding my head against her mantle. We’re
Octopuses are also cephalopods – their eight legs completely off the ground. We’re floating. She’s holding
(tentacles) are attached to their heads, rather than to a torso, me with two arms. I’m feeling her breathe …”
as in the case of humans and most creatures. The fact that “The sense of communion was palpable as the two
an octopus has three hearts, blue blood and the equivalent adult females – one vertebrate, one invertebrate; one
of nine brains – each of its eight tentacles can think for
itself – is only the beginning of what makes this alien-like Book Review on page 9