Octopi/octopuses freak me out almost as much as anteaters make me happy. Here’s why:
1. Octopi can squeeze through spaces not much bigger than their eyeball.
2. Octopi are very intelligent – perhaps as intelligent as dogs – but in a different, “alien” way.
4. Octopi play.
5. Octopi have been known to leave tanks either by breaking glass and climbing out, or squeezing through a tiny gap. (photo from Wikipedia)
6. Once they’re out they have been known to cross the floor and get into another tank full of fish to eat them. This is one of the reasons why I find octopi very scary.
7. Other times, though, apparently, they just walk around the room until they dry out and die. Which isn’t that intelligent, really.
8. They make eye contact with you. Despite being a mollusc.
9. Octopi – and strap yourself in for this one – MIGHT HAVE PERSONALITIES.
10. Octopi have powers to turn pretty much invisible and it makes them really, properly wrong and scary. You may have already seen this Youtube clip of an octopus being invisible. If you haven’t, prepare for your mind to implode. It’s the way that when it “decloaks”, you realise it’s been looking at you all the time…
I’m glad I don’t live in the sea.
February 13, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I love octopi, thankyou for these enlightening facts, however I feel you may have misunderstood the intentions of this peaceable race of marine life.
April 2, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I don’t think you’ve misunderstood anything – these are easily the most terrifying (and undoubtedly evil) creatures to have ever befouled the planet. Interestingly, that fact about octopi crossing the floor to get into another tank is what I find most disturbing too. I picture one crawling out of the sea and into my house through the letterbox then into my bedroom and onto my face which it precedes to devour with it’s horrid little beak…