booklingnerd shouted: Hey! I just saw your comments on the octopus video, and was not entirely aware that some octopus change colour! You mentioned white was generally a fear reaction, but I would like to know any other colours they change to! Like when they’re happy, sad, excited and curious ect! Thank you!
that’s a question with a complicated answer, stand by!
so the thing about octopuses is that they have not only one of the most powerful color-change abilities on the face of the planet, (they can become almost ANY color/pattern, thanks to skin cells called chromatophores that act like pixels on tv screen!) but they ALSO have the ability to change their skin texture or entire fucking shape thanks to their nature as a boneless mollusc. they use these abilities together to become the greatest stealth master on Planet Earth, the phantom of the sea!
but aside from using this chameleon superpower for absolute ninja bullshit, the octopus’s color changing seems to have an emotional component! though it’s hard to tell exactly what an octopus is feeling, because they’re so different from us apes over here in Homonidae that they might as well be fucking aliens.
however, decades of first-hand observations have given us some clues as to what’s going on in there.
if an octopus suddenly turns dark, it’s an expression of AGGRESSION/ANGER
and conversely, if an octopus suddenly turns pale/white, it’s an expression of FEAR/DISTRESS
(tentacles curling up is also a sign that an octopus is Having A Bad Time.)
we don’t know all that much about these badass little goop dudes, but we’re learning more everyday! (in the meantime, BE NICE TO YOUR LOCAL OCTOPUS and PLEASE DO NOT HURL THEM INTO BOATS, thank you.)
Thank you! I’m just generally interested in these cute lil (sometimes big) bags of brain, and they’re very interesting! I’m not qualified at all or even have that much knowledge about them, but they’re still a fave for me! Thanks for letting me know about distress and anger! Here’s a gif of what I assume is an octopus being curious-ish! (Bc no black or white!)
yeah that is tentative curiosity! octopuses are at least as curious about us as we are about them. who knows what they think of us?
They have been proven to be the only invertebrate that is capable of bonding with humans, actually! If you care for them properly and fulfill their physical, intellectual and social needs appropriately, they can and will often decide they like us very much! If you save ones life in the wild(such as from dehydration) they may linger in your presence and have been known to follow their rescuer until fully recovered and for a short time afterward. So long as you’re gentle and kind to them, they have every capacity to see us as benevolent creatures!
Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. Which is pretty amazing, when you actually think about it.
-Sarah Dessen, Just Listen (via the-book-diaries)
“Someday you’re gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You’ll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing.”
