A recent video from the U.S. Department of the Interior shows an enormous Pacific octopus crawling through the Yaquina Head tide pools in northwestern Oregon.
In accordance with the Department of the Interior, while giant Pacific octopuses may visit this location often, the animals are only spotted a number of times a yr.
Within the video, the red octopus will be seen lurking right below the water’s surface, reaching its arms forward to maneuver through the shallow pools. As its arms unfurl, the octopus flashes their pale, peach underside lined with suction cups.
The animal’s head breaches the surface for a temporary moment before the animal fully submerges itself again.
It then crawls over to shelter under a rock. There, the octopus will be seen changing its color and texture from red and smooth to brown and mottled in an try to camouflage itself.
The large Pacific octopus and other cephalopods are capable of change their color and texture as a result of specific capabilities of their skin, in accordance with the Smithsonian.
Just under their skin’s surface are hundreds of cells that allow the octopus to either adjust the kind and amount of color pigment or mirror back the colours of their environment. To alter their skin’s texture, cephalopods can control the scale of projections on their skin to create features from small bumps to tall spikes.
Due to these capabilities, the enormous Pacific octopus within the video was capable of transform its skin to match the rock it was hiding under.
The Smithsonian also noted that the enormous Pacific octopus is a very smart creature. This intelligence not only allows the animal to camouflage itself, however it allows it to imitate other species of octopus.
Along with being intelligent, the enormous Pacific octopus can also be the biggest octopus on the planet. While the octopus within the video was small, said the Department of the Interior, other giant Pacific octopuses can grow as large as 16 feet long from one end of an arm to a different.
