Luzon Island, Philippines
This octopus appeared to be walking on its "knuckles" toward me. An octopus is a very shy animal, but also curious, and extremely intelligent. They usually see you long before you see them. In fact, most of the time when I saw one in the daytime, it was when one was peeking over a rock, stretching out its body with its eyes looking out from behind a rock or coral head. When cornered, they have a remarkable ability to squeeze through the smallest of openings. This one stood about a foot tall as shown here, but could probably squeeze through an opening the size of a U.S. nickel coin.
Jeffrey N. Jeffords (photographer; copyright holder; identification)
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To cite this page: Jeffords, J.2004. "octopus.jpg" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed December 13, 2024 at https://animaldiversity.org/collections/contributors/jeffrey_jeffords/misc.inverts/octopus/
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Grants DRL 0089283, DRL 0628151, DUE 0633095, DRL 0918590, and DUE 1122742. Additional support has come from the Marisla Foundation, UM College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Museum of Zoology, and Information and Technology Services.
The ADW Team gratefully acknowledges their support.