my octopus is showing impressive color
changes of her own
observing what we’re doing
we’ve seen how closely
the octopus we have here at the house
is watching our eyes
you look at them and you feel like
they’re looking back
that’s not an illusion
they are looking back
and so when you have an animal that’s
that attentive to another animal’s eyes
that is very suggestive of high level of
awareness of the world
[Music]
well scientists do find questions about
octopus intelligence particularly
intriguing
at the seattle aquarium they did some
experiments giving different objects to
octopuses
and recorded what happened
[Music]
in one of the most telling experiments
the researchers put a pill bottle in the
tank with just enough air in it to float
there was no food or anything to be
gained here
but still a few octopuses found reason
to be interested
nothing happened at first but after the
fourth time
the octopus would uh
would bounce take the pill bottle and uh
blow it out into a stream of water
that was circulating around the tank
there it goes
and the uh the water would bring the
pill bottle back to the octopus again
and it would start the whole thing over
again and do it again and again
blowing the pill bottle into the water
until it came back and then blowing it
back into the water again
a bit like bouncing a ball
the conclusion from this experiment was
simple
it fit all the criteria for play
play of course is something that
intelligent animals do
and laurel spends many hours playing
with heidi
now now she’s now you say hello to me
octopuses have up to 240 suckers on
their arms
each has sensitive chemical receptors
heidi can touch and taste laurel at the
same time
she’s just she just lightly checked it
out
she doesn’t want me to leave
octopus also have estrogen like humans
do
is it possible that heidi can be
detecting the estrogen on laurel’s skin
does heidi maybe taste the difference
between males and females
heidi
her arm is now up my sleeve
that’s fun
heidi you’re you’re being
maybe a naughty
she’s
lifting herself almost all the way out
of the tank right now
come here come here
oh
now i’m wet
the idea of laurel having any kind of
relationship with a mollusk
is extraordinary when you think about it
this is an animal that has
600 million years of distance from us
that’s almost as deep as any divide can
be between two animals
with three hearts no bones
a beak with a venomous bite
and a gut that runs through its brain
to one point of view
the octopus is completely alien
as science fiction movies have long
demonstrated humans spend a lot of
imagination dreaming up what it might be
like to meet an alien
[Music]
the filmmakers imagine what it might be
like to encounter a species that changes
the way we think about the universe
[Music]
[Music]
you
