Page 15 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens- June '24

Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens, Page 15
Book Review

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