Everything But The Shark Week—Dive Deeper: Octopus
This week, many individuals are celebrating the return of one of summer’s favorite pastimes…Shark Week.
At Falvey Library, we’re spotlighting a few unsung sea creatures on the blog. Should octopuses have their own week on the Discovery channel? Of course they should. I mean, they have three hearts! For additional information on octopuses (yes, that is the plural of ‘octopus’) check out the resources below.
Octopus Fast Facts:
- Venomous.
- Taste with their skin.
- Can solve puzzles and use tools.
- Change color and texture—excellent camouflage abilities.
- Good hunters on and off land (they can leave the water for minutes at a time).
- Octopuses can fit through any opening larger than their parrot-like beaks.
- Can squirt deadly ink at predators.
- Their arms (not tentacles) can even react after they’ve been completely severed.
- Have blue blood.
- Most species only live between one and two years.
- Can change their body shape to mimic other animals.
Recommended Resources for Cephalopod Fans:
- Octopus (Schweid, 2013)
- My Octopus Teacher (Netflix)
- Filmmaker Finds An Unlikely Underwater Friend In ‘My Octopus Teacher’ (NPR)
- Guide to squid, cuttlefish and octopuses of Australasia (Norman, 2000)
- Octopod: Inside The Amazing World Of The Octopus (NPR)
- Octopuses (Academic Video Online)
- Smartest Animals, Part 2 (Academic Video Online)
- Cephalopods of Australia and sub-Antarctic territories (Reid, 2016)
- Cirrate octopods with associated deep-sea organisms new biological data based on deep benthic photographs (Cephalopoda) (Roper, 1972)
- Octopus (ScienceDirect)
- Octopus (Academic Search Ultimate)
- WATCH: Octopuses Punch Fish, Sometimes For No Apparent Reason (NPR)
- Blue Planet II (Academic Video Online)
- Sleeping Octopuses May Have Dreams, But They’re Probably Brief (NPR)
- Octopuses (National Geographic)
Check back tomorrow for some fun facts on narwhals!
Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.
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