'They’re as curious about you as you are about them,' said a scientist about the octopus.
Nature offers some of the most extraordinary and breathtaking scenes to those who dare to explore. The National Geographic series Secrets of the Octopus captures stunning visuals of a marine biologist interacting with these fascinating creatures, reports Newsweek. Shot in the Great Barrier Reef and other locations, the series dives into the hidden lives and behaviors of octopuses, revealing their mysterious habits and lifestyles.
The series trailer, shared by National Geographic, reveals the octopus in all its majesty and highlights the vast potential for study. Dubbed “shapeshifters” and “aliens,” the octopus is shown to have more in common with humans than we might think. Marine biologist Alex Schnell, who explores their world in the series, describes her "magical experience," saying, “They’re as curious about you as you are about them.”
Talking to Newsweek, Schnell said, “Cephalopods [the animal group that contains octopuses, squid and related creatures] were always a point of interest from a very young age.” Pointing out to their “alien” factor, she said, “They're just so alien—they have three hearts that pump blue blood, no bones, and skin that can change color in an eye-blink. But within this really strange framework, we're seeing glimmers of intelligence that we might normally expect to see in, say, dolphin chimpanzees or elephants." Right from observing the octopuses to engaging with them, the series has captured a plethora of footage with priceless knowledge to extract. The crew filmed for around 1500 hours in different locations to get a natural and first-hand understanding of what these sea creatures have to offer.
Schnell interacted with the octopuses of various kinds in their habitats in unique ways. The need to capture authentic footage required her to bond with the octopuses which resulted in an invaluable experience. Of all the amazing footage captured throughout the filming process, the crew was particularly amazed by an octopus in the Great Barrier Reef, who the team interestingly named “Scarlett.” They even captured an instance where a fish did a sort of “headstand” to communicate with the octopus. “We were able to see rare footage of interspecies communication and collaborative hunting, with the octopus understanding that this coral trout was doing a headstand to indicate where a crab was hiding," Schnell said.
She added that since the fish don’t have hands, the headstand was a way of communicating or gesturing about the prey hidden. As a form of “crazy” research, Schnell tried to gesture the octopus similarly and the result did not disappoint. "She let me get super close and I could see that as she was putting her arms underneath the coral rubble crabs would swim out and escape her grasp. So I just randomly started to point to where these crabs would go and she immediately responded," Schnell said. “This is just the first step, but it would be a really interesting avenue to further investigate,” she exclaimed.
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