As information and interest of my species is growing, so will the human activity surrounding us. More research being conducted means more humans in our habitats, possibly disturbing some of my potential prey or enraging a dangerous predator. But the main human impact to our species at the moment is probably tourism. Sulawesi, and Indonesia in general, is a very beautiful place, with multiple vacationing spots. People are allowed to go into the ocean in order to observe us, and some have even come face to face with me, but other than that, or the occasional investigation and filming of our species, we don't have much of a relationship with your kind. Humans venturing into the estuaries where we stay doesn't leave a big or very negative effect, but the pollution from the hotels bordering the coast of Sulawesi could pose a risk, as I'm sure some litter and unwanted chemicals make their way to the water. So far, however, there isn't any evidence suggesting that we are being dangerously affected by humans in the premises. There is no obvious excess of pollution in the Sulawesi area, or especially disruptive human activity. You don't even dig for resources that are naturally in the mimic octopus habitat, which isn't too surprising, considering it's just a bunch of muddy water. In fact, it is barely known if we are even endangered, though, again, it is assumed that we aren't. With our mimicking, even humans are sometimes fooled, so you guys don't know for certain.
(Central Sulawesi, at Prince John Resort Donggala)
Unfortunately (or fortunately), this will be my last blog post. I'm starting to feel like my 9 month life span is up, and I am prepared to get the most out of it as I can, and I'll just be sticking around my homey little estuary.
And now, what you've all been waiting for; the magic of my mimicry. My completely unique ability to not only blend in and mimic plants and rocks, but multiple animals too, is what sets me apart from other octopuses. People say I'm a very intelligent animal (duh! How else would I be writing this?) since I am able to imitate the colour patterns, speed, and body posture of various, usually venomous, animals. Another supposedly smart feature of mine is that I am able to discern which venomous or otherwise not-very-tasty animal would most successfully ward off a certain predator; essentially, I am just able to choose what animal to mimic based on what predator I need to scare off or avoid.
Sometimes we mimic a purely venomous creature that everyone likes to stay away from, sometimes we choose to simply imitate an unappealing, not-very-tasty specimen that the hunter doesn't feel is worth the effort. Click here to see me morphing from form to form...I have to say, it's fairly amazing- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oQBYw6xxc
Like I've said, my mimic octopus friends and I have evolved from just looking the same as things like the sea floor, coral, and rocks, to mimicking animals, hence the label 'mimic octopus'. This allows us to be mobile even while remaining 'camouflaged', and instead of just being ignored, we will be consciously avoided by predators. Another explanation for why we evolved into mimicry is because of our surroundings. Unlike most other octopuses, we don't make our habitats in coral reefs, but in estuaries or river mouths, where the water is shallow and there are no particularly good hiding spots or places to blend in. This meant we needed to find another way of protecting ourselves from endangerment or extinction, so we eventually turned to pretending to be another life form, and actually burrowing into the sea floor to make homes and keep hidden, another feature exclusive to our species of octopus! A probable reason we started to use these strategies and develop these traits was because of the environment surrounding us. Since we made our homes in estuaries, the aforementioned traits and skills were developed. And, since it is often murky and muddy in our living areas, our default colour is brown/beige and white, in order to naturally blend in when we aren't busy moving. And, if we had moved elsewhere instead of adapting to suit these estuaries, we would not have chosen the same species to imitate, like the flat fish or sea snake, as shown above. One last thing- while many other species of octopus are known to be venomous, mimic octopuses are not believed to be. Why else would we go to such great lengths to mimic our fellow animals? Part of our niche (role) in the community is to keep the population of our prey at a good level. Since we mimics eat things like crustaceans and small crabs and worms, we make sure they don't over populate. Of course, we also act as prey to other animals, and just generally keep the cycle of life going in estuary ecosystems.
Other Traits & Skills
Aside from mimicking, we have some other fascinating features that, while not different from other octopuses in our family, are still cool to learn about. Like other octopuses, and many other cephalopods, I use a siphon to move through the water. In most cephalopods, the siphon is a muscular tube, also called the hyponome, The hyponome releases water in a jet, with water entering through the sides of the funnel. When it enters the tube, the hyponome will expand and contract to expel a jet of water, propelling us forward. Some octopuses can travel up to/around 20 kilometers an hour. As you probably know, other octopuses also can change colour to blend in with their surroundings. We use chromatophores, special pigment cells, to do so. The chromatophore will expand or contract in response to light, and has a few different components to it. One part of this pigment cell is the biochrome, the part that actually produces and then contains the pigment, while the schemochromes change the way light reflects off of the animal's skin, therefore changing the colour. Chromatophores are controlled by and connected to the nervous system. By controlling the size of the cell, we are able to vary in colour and create changing patterns. Using muscular contractions, one pigment cell of a certain colour can be expanded, while another can be shrunk! A main part of our camouflaging system is our superior eyesight- without cephalopods having excellent seeing abilities, and being able to detect colour and intensity of light, our system for camouflaging would not be as fast or well-structured. Hopefully some of this information lived up to your expectations! You humans are a picky bunch, so I wouldn't bet on it, but who knows. Speaking of humans...you guys are what I'll be talking about next time.
As a Thaumoctopus mimicus, I never met my parents. That may sound tragic to you, but that's just how it is. When her eggs are nearly ready to hatch, the mother mimic's body decides that her time is over, and the children are left to their own devices, which may sound good to some kids, but it isn't really. A lot of us die. I was one of the luckier (or perhaps more skilled) babies, and am still alive today, as this post can attest to. It all starts with a male mimic octopus. After he gives his sperm sac to a female mimic, depositing it in her mantle cavity, he only has a month or two left to live. The female then carries the sac around for several months, until her eggs can be safely laid out to be fertilized. When it comes time, the female does so, and uses the sperm to fertilize the eggs. Then she strings the eggs up on one of her arms. The suckers on her tentacles prevent the eggs from falling as she moves, because unlike most octopuses, us mimics still swim around and feed during this time. And, like I said, the mother will die before her eggs hatch. Soon after she dies, we emerge, and float around the surface as larvae until we mature, and sink down to the bottom to begin living.
These, potentially, are what I could have looked like as a larva, despite these being of the species Octopus vulgaris, otherwise known as the common octopus.
You might be wondering who I interact with. Some guys I hang around are poisonous, like the lion fish, who has fins tipped with venom, and the sea snake, who has a venomous bite.
As you may have guessed, these are some of the animals I am able to imitate. I also live around jellyfish, stingrays, crabs, crustaceans, small sharks, barracuda, and flat fish (you humans don't seem to know any other animals in my community, except for the ones I eat, ones that eat me or ones that I mimic). The sea snake, lion fish, flat fish, stingray, and jellyfish are all animals I mimic, meaning that our relationship is one in which I benefit, since that's how I evade predators, while they remain unaffected. This is referred to as commensalism. Again, since you humans don't seem to care about anything but my ability to mimic other animals, there isn't much information on species with whom I cooperate (mutualism). But there is this kind of parasite, the rhombozoan, that lives in octopuses kidneys and uses its cilia to pick out nutrients in our urine. This relationship, obviously, is parasitism, where one species benefits and the other is affected negatively. A funny thing about a couple of my predator and prey relationships is that some of my predators are actually animals I mimic. One of those strange relationships is with the lion fish, which could count as a predator if I accidentally angered it or got too close to its venom-tipped fins. I also am able to imitate the stingray, another one of my predators. Because of their stingers, they are also a less-desirable animal to approach, so they would be good to mimic in certain situations. In fact, one of us has probably used a strategy similar to ones we use to lure prey in order to evade a stingray: pretending to be of the same species (in this instance, a stingray) so that they don't see you as a foe (or a potential meal). That way, if luck is on your side, they won't notice how small and boneless and unlike a stingray you are, and will just pass on by. Other than those animals, some of my predators are small sharks or barracuda. Depending on which hunter I am trying to trick, I imitate a certain foul tasting or venomous species. What I decide to mimic can depend on variables like proximity, the current surrounding environment and what food tickles that predator's fancy. For example, when being provoked by a damselfish, one of my kind was seen mimicking a sea snake. But as I mentioned previously, I don't exclusively fool my predators. I like to trick my food, too. Like yesterday. I was bored of foraging for easy-to-get food like tiny crustaceans and worms, simply probing various dips in the sea floor with the ends of my tentacles and waiting for the meal to be drawn to my suckers; I wanted a challenge. I decided to go for the little crabs I had been eyeing for the last few days. Unfortunately, when I swiped for them, they were fast enough to avoid it. And I didn't even have a second chance, since I had already frightened them away. But only an hour later, I spotted them once more. Instead of just going for it, I took a moment to think. I began to change colour, and practiced some crab-like movements before heading out and into the fray. And, just like I had wanted, none of them realized what I really was until it was too late. Now that I look back on this, it does seem a bit cruel, but animals have to do what animals have to do. Is it not my duty to regulate the crab and crustacean populations? At least I'm not as bad as some other mimic octopuses, who actually imitate a crab wanting to mate (!!!), and right when a line of suitors starts to form...it's over before it even has time to begin, every last tiny crab consumed. Thanks for listening! Next up, a shorter post.
Hi, I'm a Mimic Octopus. You may know me by my Latin or scientific name, Thaumoctopus mimicus. So I guess I'm a little new to this 'blogging' thing. But living in the sea is quite similar to what humans call 'living under a rock'- I don't get out much. Or ever, really. I think I'll start off this experience by telling you a bit of who am I, where I live, etc. The basics. Currently, there isn't much information indicating whether my species is endangered or not. Heck, my best guess is as good as yours when it comes to this population stuff. And your best guess is that we probably aren't endangered, but since my species is often challenging to identify, it's hard to say. Me and my kin prefer to live in estuaries, the areas in which fresh and salt water meet, often at river mouths, where the fresh water spills into the ocean. Personally, I made my habitat off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the spot where the first ever mimic octopus was spotted in 1998. But we have also been observed in places like Bali, Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, and Malaysia. Shallow, warm estuaries are rich with nutrients and are often pretty murky and muddy, perfect for blending in, as us mimic octopuses are naturally striped with beige/brown and white. It's thought that part of the reason we developed the ability to mimic is because our location, unlike a reef, does not give us many hiding places. Here's where this thing called "diversity among species" comes in. Like I said, I live in Indonesia, so I am surrounded by different animals than mimic octopuses in say, Australia, where they live in a reef. They have other kinds of predators, and another variety of poisonous/venomous sea creatures to imitate in order to fool them.
This is what I look like when I am not trying to blend in or mimic. My entire body measures to about 60 cm long, and each of my tentacles (of which I have eight, like all the other octopuses I know) measure to approximately 25. Not only are we pretty small in size, but we also live small lives. Since the male dies shortly after giving the sperm to the female, and the female dies right before her eggs hatch, the mimic octopus has quite a minuscule life span; only 9 months! I suppose I should tell you a bit about my family. I am in the octopodidae family, which is basically the category that the majority of known octopus species fall under. One of my relatives I know you humans like to avoid is the venomous Blue-Ringed Octopus. You've probably heard of some more of them, like the Umbrella Octopus, maybe even the Giant Antarctic or the Caribbean Dwarf Octopus, to name a couple. And I am also a part of the cephalopod class, a broader category, with other animals like squid and cuttlefish. Anyway, you'll see me in my next blog post. I think I will try to talk about my neighbouring species and our interactions next time, if all goes according to plan. Sorry, nothing about my legendary mimicry yet.