(curious instrumental music)
- I've dedicated my life to studying the ocean,
but sometimes you come across something so marvelous
you have to wonder,
"What the heck is going on down here?"
Today we're talking about the mimic octopus.
- [Others] Mimic octopus.
(curious instrumental music)
- Octopuses are rather curious creatures.
When exposed, they're vulnerable to predators
so typically, they like to stay hidden.
When they do move they do so
by walking along the ocean's floor on their eight legs.
(curious instrumental music)
But in 1998, scientists discovered an octopus
residing in the shallow waters of Indonesia
doing something quite strange.
Over the course of two years,
they filmed it and nine other similar octopuses
mimicking behaviors of at least three different species.
They found it swimming,
its legs outstretched high above the ocean floor
like a lion fish,
flattened out gliding over the bottom like a flat fish,
and extending its tentacles to mimic a poisonous sea snake.
This allows the mimic octopus to hide in plain sight.
Astonishing.
(captivating instrumental music)