1 00:00:17,540 --> 00:00:21,500 We take our way of existence for granted. 2 00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:23,740 But there are other ways of being. 3 00:00:29,500 --> 00:00:34,100 The octopus has followed a different evolutionary path, 4 00:00:34,100 --> 00:00:37,100 making them different from all the other intelligent animals 5 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:38,300 on this planet. 6 00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:45,060 But me, I'm less intrigued by the differences 7 00:00:45,060 --> 00:00:47,460 and more interested in our similarities... 8 00:00:49,180 --> 00:00:52,940 ..and the nature of a relationship I might have with such a creature. 9 00:00:56,780 --> 00:01:00,460 This year, I got to experiment with an idea. 10 00:01:05,980 --> 00:01:09,180 What would I find out if I invited an octopus... 11 00:01:10,820 --> 00:01:12,020 ..into my home? 12 00:01:14,820 --> 00:01:18,180 What kind of connection is possible 13 00:01:18,180 --> 00:01:20,300 with an animal that has three hearts 14 00:01:20,300 --> 00:01:23,020 and blue blood running through its veins? 15 00:01:39,060 --> 00:01:41,900 My name is David Scheel. 16 00:01:41,900 --> 00:01:45,260 I'm Professor of Marine Biology at Alaska Pacific University, 17 00:01:45,260 --> 00:01:46,540 here in Anchorage. 18 00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:50,420 I've studied all sorts of animals, 19 00:01:50,420 --> 00:01:54,460 but for the last 25 years my focus has been on octopuses. 20 00:01:56,100 --> 00:01:57,660 I have two girls. 21 00:01:57,660 --> 00:02:01,820 Juniper is away at university right now, 22 00:02:01,820 --> 00:02:06,140 and Laurel is with me about half the time, lives here. 23 00:02:06,140 --> 00:02:08,740 Laurel's 16, she's in tenth grade. 24 00:02:08,740 --> 00:02:11,740 We should check with her, make sure Dad hasn't screwed that up. 25 00:02:11,740 --> 00:02:13,820 Hey, Laurel! Yeah? 26 00:02:13,820 --> 00:02:16,140 You're 16, right? In tenth grade? 27 00:02:16,140 --> 00:02:17,980 Yeah! There we go. 28 00:02:24,260 --> 00:02:26,660 I'm going out on a limb a little, 29 00:02:26,660 --> 00:02:30,420 taking my octopus fascination one step further. 30 00:02:33,980 --> 00:02:38,580 I'm going to fill my living room with a large tank of salt water. 31 00:02:40,620 --> 00:02:41,780 I got divorced, 32 00:02:41,780 --> 00:02:45,060 and the ex took some of the living room furniture, 33 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:46,500 most of the living room furniture. 34 00:02:48,340 --> 00:02:50,540 My daughter's in and out of the house, 35 00:02:50,540 --> 00:02:52,740 but she was eager to have a pet. 36 00:02:52,740 --> 00:02:56,460 And so, this is a compromise 37 00:02:56,460 --> 00:02:59,740 between a girl who really wanted a dog 38 00:02:59,740 --> 00:03:03,780 and a dad who's overly interested in octopuses. 39 00:03:04,980 --> 00:03:07,620 Actually, it's not a compromise. 40 00:03:07,620 --> 00:03:09,660 I got the octopus. 41 00:03:09,660 --> 00:03:10,860 Yeah, you have the lamp. 42 00:03:10,860 --> 00:03:12,020 So it's lit? 43 00:03:12,020 --> 00:03:13,940 Yeah, so it's lit, and, um... 44 00:03:13,940 --> 00:03:17,340 Inviting an octopus into your home is no small undertaking. 45 00:03:19,220 --> 00:03:21,060 Ah, have we got it? 46 00:03:21,060 --> 00:03:23,460 All right, yeah, it's coming. Now it's coming. 47 00:03:23,460 --> 00:03:24,860 All right, here we go. 48 00:03:29,780 --> 00:03:32,820 This new set-up is going to allow me to spend more time with an octopus 49 00:03:32,820 --> 00:03:35,420 than I've been able to do otherwise. 50 00:03:40,140 --> 00:03:42,780 When I spend time with an octopus in the wild, 51 00:03:42,780 --> 00:03:46,340 I visit them for only as long as I can stay in the water. 52 00:03:54,380 --> 00:03:56,460 Here in Alaska, I work with the species 53 00:03:56,460 --> 00:03:59,580 that's native to these cold waters, 54 00:03:59,580 --> 00:04:01,420 the giant Pacific octopus. 55 00:04:06,500 --> 00:04:08,060 This has been a fantastic site. 56 00:04:08,060 --> 00:04:11,580 There's maybe a dozen or more octopuses 57 00:04:11,580 --> 00:04:13,220 that we might be able to find, 58 00:04:13,220 --> 00:04:16,900 at depths from ten feet deep to 90. 59 00:04:27,860 --> 00:04:30,140 These are the largest octopuses in the world. 60 00:04:31,940 --> 00:04:33,940 They can be as big as I am. 61 00:04:45,340 --> 00:04:49,060 Like all octopuses, they are solitary animals. 62 00:04:49,060 --> 00:04:51,220 And they are hard to find. 63 00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:56,060 But they do leave us some signs. 64 00:05:02,020 --> 00:05:04,380 They bring their prey back to their den, 65 00:05:04,380 --> 00:05:06,060 and they eat it at their den. 66 00:05:07,900 --> 00:05:10,500 And then they throw the hard shells outside the door. 67 00:05:12,740 --> 00:05:14,780 And we call that pile a midden. 68 00:05:17,020 --> 00:05:20,340 You can get a lot of information by looking at their garbage piles. 69 00:05:37,140 --> 00:05:40,180 Place your hand outside the den 70 00:05:40,180 --> 00:05:41,980 and an arm might stretch out to touch you. 71 00:05:46,260 --> 00:05:48,860 Sometimes they're a bit too enthusiastic 72 00:05:48,860 --> 00:05:50,500 and they grab your mask. 73 00:05:52,180 --> 00:05:56,060 You don't want to let them get a hold of your air supply. 74 00:05:56,060 --> 00:05:57,900 You know, they have eight arms, I have two. 75 00:05:57,900 --> 00:05:59,220 So, they win. 76 00:06:11,260 --> 00:06:13,540 They're sort of the gentle giants of the ocean. 77 00:06:19,580 --> 00:06:21,220 They can be really large, 78 00:06:21,220 --> 00:06:23,820 but they're very graceful animals. 79 00:06:30,500 --> 00:06:33,540 They sort of flow from one place to another. 80 00:06:34,620 --> 00:06:38,260 And I like to watch how they use their different legs. 81 00:06:39,500 --> 00:06:41,740 Sometimes they're creeping on their suckers, 82 00:06:41,740 --> 00:06:46,460 sometimes it's sort of they're just following the lead-to arms. 83 00:06:46,460 --> 00:06:49,140 And then other times, you can see this sort of walking behaviour 84 00:06:49,140 --> 00:06:51,220 going on with the rear arms. 85 00:06:56,340 --> 00:06:59,300 Down here, I'm in their realm, 86 00:06:59,300 --> 00:07:02,540 and I often wonder, "How do they see the world?" 87 00:07:05,100 --> 00:07:08,940 And this is what my plan at home is all about, 88 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:12,580 to spend a little more time in an octopus encounter. 89 00:07:14,540 --> 00:07:17,060 To consider - how do they see the world? 90 00:07:18,660 --> 00:07:20,340 How might they see us? 91 00:07:31,900 --> 00:07:34,220 Well, I didn't want a giant Pacific. 92 00:07:35,780 --> 00:07:38,980 I wanted something that was different, 93 00:07:38,980 --> 00:07:41,860 something that will be new to me, 94 00:07:41,860 --> 00:07:45,060 a warmer water species, that's faster, more active. 95 00:07:49,140 --> 00:07:51,380 This is a species that's been kept in aquariums 96 00:07:51,380 --> 00:07:53,580 to be studied for its intelligence. 97 00:07:56,340 --> 00:07:58,980 It's an Octopus cyanea, 98 00:07:58,980 --> 00:08:00,740 known as the day octopus. 99 00:08:01,780 --> 00:08:05,220 They call it that because, unlike some other octopus species, 100 00:08:05,220 --> 00:08:08,060 these guys are active during the day, 101 00:08:08,060 --> 00:08:10,300 and so you get to see them more. 102 00:08:17,180 --> 00:08:18,820 Yeah, pulling hard. 103 00:08:18,820 --> 00:08:20,860 Well, just a minute, I'll put you in the tank. 104 00:08:20,860 --> 00:08:22,420 No. No, not yet. 105 00:08:22,420 --> 00:08:23,580 Not yet. 106 00:08:23,580 --> 00:08:24,700 Just a minute. 107 00:08:26,020 --> 00:08:27,140 There you go. 108 00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:29,380 There you go. 109 00:08:36,300 --> 00:08:37,380 There she goes. 110 00:08:39,140 --> 00:08:40,780 Oh, nice colour change. 111 00:08:44,100 --> 00:08:45,220 Oh, look at this. 112 00:08:46,500 --> 00:08:47,460 Nice. 113 00:08:48,900 --> 00:08:53,420 I guess the big thing for me about keeping an animal in the home 114 00:08:53,420 --> 00:08:56,620 is it's just more relaxed. 115 00:08:56,620 --> 00:08:58,860 If I don't want to do anything, I don't have to do anything - 116 00:08:58,860 --> 00:09:00,700 just see what the animal does. 117 00:09:00,700 --> 00:09:04,740 And I'm not trying to do science here. 118 00:09:04,740 --> 00:09:06,740 I'm just trying to think 119 00:09:06,740 --> 00:09:07,780 a little bit. 120 00:09:07,780 --> 00:09:09,980 So, it's just a chance to be 121 00:09:09,980 --> 00:09:11,340 more available 122 00:09:11,340 --> 00:09:15,860 and more present for whatever the animal's living, day-to-day. 123 00:09:18,940 --> 00:09:22,500 She's very careful to keep her eyeball in view of mine. 124 00:09:24,940 --> 00:09:27,060 And she's already checking me out. 125 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:32,620 I always get the sense when you're scuba diving 126 00:09:32,620 --> 00:09:34,820 that they play this game with you. 127 00:09:43,340 --> 00:09:47,380 Octopuses adapt their environments around them to their own liking. 128 00:09:49,060 --> 00:09:52,260 They clean out a hole under a rock or in a crevice, 129 00:09:52,260 --> 00:09:55,500 blowing out sand and debris with their siphon. 130 00:09:58,900 --> 00:10:01,780 And at that point, it's not just shelter. 131 00:10:02,780 --> 00:10:04,140 It's home. 132 00:10:17,220 --> 00:10:18,460 Hey there. 133 00:10:18,460 --> 00:10:20,060 Are you interested in some food? 134 00:10:21,540 --> 00:10:23,340 Octopus love crab. 135 00:10:36,220 --> 00:10:37,420 Oh, there it is. 136 00:10:37,420 --> 00:10:39,180 She's definitely feeling for it. 137 00:10:39,180 --> 00:10:40,980 Oh, oh, oh, oh! 138 00:10:40,980 --> 00:10:43,460 She's after the tube, not the crab. 139 00:10:43,460 --> 00:10:46,300 There we go. 140 00:10:46,300 --> 00:10:48,700 There we go. Oh! 141 00:10:50,060 --> 00:10:52,980 All right, look at the colour pattern. 142 00:10:52,980 --> 00:10:56,020 That is a satisfied octopus. 143 00:10:59,060 --> 00:11:01,300 I like the texture she's put on. 144 00:11:01,300 --> 00:11:03,580 She didn't have that before. 145 00:11:03,580 --> 00:11:06,140 The papillae coming up around the eye, 146 00:11:06,140 --> 00:11:08,780 and the sort of bumps and things all over her head. 147 00:11:08,780 --> 00:11:09,860 It's very nice. 148 00:11:11,860 --> 00:11:15,140 Now she at least will know that the tube 149 00:11:15,140 --> 00:11:19,180 and the environment have interesting possibilities. 150 00:11:42,740 --> 00:11:47,020 Laurel is also going to be helping me take care of the octopus. 151 00:11:51,900 --> 00:11:56,100 You know, the octopus is very happy to see Laurel every day. 152 00:11:59,940 --> 00:12:01,140 Hello. 153 00:12:01,140 --> 00:12:05,860 Laurel was just glad to have a pet that was glad to see her. 154 00:12:05,860 --> 00:12:09,420 Yeah, I think a lot of her pets are kind of indifferent to her. 155 00:12:09,420 --> 00:12:11,620 Her goldfish and her rabbit outside. 156 00:12:11,620 --> 00:12:13,460 You want to come over here? 157 00:12:13,460 --> 00:12:15,540 So an octopus is kind of fun, cos it comes running. 158 00:12:16,860 --> 00:12:19,540 Looks like she's coming back over. 159 00:12:19,540 --> 00:12:21,740 Laurel would send me little video clips 160 00:12:21,740 --> 00:12:25,580 of the octopus getting up and waiting on the glass, 161 00:12:25,580 --> 00:12:27,060 and ready to play. 162 00:12:27,060 --> 00:12:30,700 And, you know, I'm sure Laurel looked forward to it every day. 163 00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:32,740 Come here, Heidi. 164 00:12:32,740 --> 00:12:35,580 Some of the things that she would do remind me 165 00:12:35,580 --> 00:12:37,700 of what, like, dogs would do. 166 00:12:37,700 --> 00:12:39,500 Oh, you're already up there. Come here. 167 00:12:39,500 --> 00:12:42,220 She comes over to the wall of the tank 168 00:12:42,220 --> 00:12:45,380 and just kind of like all excited to see you. 169 00:12:45,380 --> 00:12:47,580 And so, being an intelligent animal 170 00:12:47,580 --> 00:12:49,820 means that you need a lot of stimulus, 171 00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:54,220 so being played with or having just, like, interactions 172 00:12:54,220 --> 00:12:57,300 with people is entertaining for her. 173 00:12:59,340 --> 00:13:02,260 Laurel at times, she'd sit for 30 minutes with the octopus 174 00:13:02,260 --> 00:13:03,900 just holding on to her, 175 00:13:03,900 --> 00:13:05,420 then wait for it to let go. 176 00:13:05,420 --> 00:13:08,060 And now she took something. 177 00:13:08,060 --> 00:13:10,740 So she'd sit there with her hand in the aquarium for 30 minutes, 178 00:13:10,740 --> 00:13:13,460 so they're pretty affectionate. 179 00:13:14,580 --> 00:13:17,380 She's filming more of the sand right now. 180 00:13:21,660 --> 00:13:23,500 Well, now she's filming me. 181 00:13:26,620 --> 00:13:27,660 Hi, Heidi! 182 00:13:31,700 --> 00:13:34,260 The reason we call her Heidi was cos, when we first 183 00:13:34,260 --> 00:13:36,900 got her, she spent a very, very long time in her den 184 00:13:36,900 --> 00:13:39,580 and she was just hiding the whole time. 185 00:13:39,580 --> 00:13:42,020 She didn't seem to want to come out and then, 186 00:13:42,020 --> 00:13:45,500 basically once we taught her that we meant food, 187 00:13:45,500 --> 00:13:47,900 she just grabbed on and was like, 188 00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:50,100 "OK, I'm keeping you with me." 189 00:13:53,940 --> 00:13:57,460 The cephalopod community, we're all excited about octopuses, 190 00:13:57,460 --> 00:14:00,700 and we're a fairly close-knit group of researchers - 191 00:14:00,700 --> 00:14:04,420 share all kinds of different experiences and advice. 192 00:14:05,780 --> 00:14:08,180 Well, hi there. Hi, David. How are you doing? 193 00:14:08,180 --> 00:14:10,060 All right. How are you? 194 00:14:10,060 --> 00:14:13,780 Bret is an expert on the early stages of cephalopod life, 195 00:14:13,780 --> 00:14:16,340 that group of animals that includes octopuses, 196 00:14:16,340 --> 00:14:17,900 cuttlefish and squid. 197 00:14:17,900 --> 00:14:20,220 Exactly. So how's everything going over there? 198 00:14:20,220 --> 00:14:22,980 Cos I've never kept an octopus in my living room before. 199 00:14:22,980 --> 00:14:24,660 You want to take a look at the set-up? 200 00:14:24,660 --> 00:14:27,100 Yeah, I'd love to. All right. 201 00:14:27,100 --> 00:14:29,900 Let's see if I can get the computer over there and show you. 202 00:14:29,900 --> 00:14:32,460 So, she's actually out right now. 203 00:14:32,460 --> 00:14:34,660 Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's great. 204 00:14:34,660 --> 00:14:37,060 She's got a good marbled colouration going on there. 205 00:14:37,060 --> 00:14:39,420 My day octopus is already a few months old. 206 00:14:39,420 --> 00:14:41,540 There's a rock she's sitting on, so... 207 00:14:41,540 --> 00:14:44,540 But at Bret's lab, we can get a glimpse into the first few weeks 208 00:14:44,540 --> 00:14:45,740 of a cephalopod's life. 209 00:14:48,420 --> 00:14:50,540 We're watching the mother until she starts 210 00:14:50,540 --> 00:14:52,660 going through her egg-laying phase. 211 00:14:52,660 --> 00:14:54,740 And once she starts laying her eggs, 212 00:14:54,740 --> 00:14:57,980 she'll sit there and pulse jets of water over her eggs. 213 00:14:59,180 --> 00:15:02,140 What that does is basically keep them oxygenated, 214 00:15:02,140 --> 00:15:04,300 and the eggs continue to develop 215 00:15:04,300 --> 00:15:06,900 until they get to basically look almost like 216 00:15:06,900 --> 00:15:10,100 little octopuses inside of each individual egg. 217 00:15:10,100 --> 00:15:13,340 And then we know they can kind of hatch at any time. 218 00:15:17,620 --> 00:15:21,300 This is one of the few places you can see octopuses hatch 219 00:15:21,300 --> 00:15:22,980 from the egg. 220 00:15:33,380 --> 00:15:36,980 From this moment, octopuses are on their own. 221 00:15:41,420 --> 00:15:43,900 The first instinct of this hatchling 222 00:15:43,900 --> 00:15:47,300 is to construct a den out of whatever it can find. 223 00:15:56,900 --> 00:16:01,580 Baby bobtail squid hide by sticking grains of sand to their bodies 224 00:16:01,580 --> 00:16:04,580 with a mucus extruded from their skin. 225 00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:12,100 These are all hard-wired little predators. 226 00:16:13,580 --> 00:16:16,380 They don't hesitate to take down prey 227 00:16:16,380 --> 00:16:19,620 even when it's two or three times their size. 228 00:16:25,900 --> 00:16:28,580 Their colour-changing cells start flashing... 229 00:16:29,580 --> 00:16:31,780 ..while they're still in the egg. 230 00:16:35,380 --> 00:16:38,660 Three types of cells with neural control 231 00:16:38,660 --> 00:16:42,340 make colour change almost instantaneous. 232 00:16:45,340 --> 00:16:47,620 These young pyjama squid use this 233 00:16:47,620 --> 00:16:50,620 to produce their signature striped pattern. 234 00:16:54,740 --> 00:16:56,780 But there is one cephalopod 235 00:16:56,780 --> 00:16:58,340 that is the master. 236 00:17:04,780 --> 00:17:07,140 Just a few centimetres long, 237 00:17:07,140 --> 00:17:09,580 these baby flamboyant cuttles... 238 00:17:10,580 --> 00:17:12,860 ..can beguile anyone 239 00:17:12,860 --> 00:17:16,260 with a shape-shift that is out of this world. 240 00:17:33,620 --> 00:17:36,620 The day octopus can also perform an extraordinary display 241 00:17:36,620 --> 00:17:38,340 with their skin. 242 00:17:42,860 --> 00:17:46,540 And I already have some experience with these octopus in the wild. 243 00:17:47,540 --> 00:17:49,620 I've been in the water with them 244 00:17:49,620 --> 00:17:51,860 on the southwest coast of Madagascar, 245 00:17:51,860 --> 00:17:54,100 working with local Vezo fishermen, 246 00:17:54,100 --> 00:17:56,940 designing a way to census the octopus population. 247 00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:08,380 Breece has an amazing ability to find the octopus 248 00:18:08,380 --> 00:18:10,060 in amongst the coral. 249 00:18:12,580 --> 00:18:14,980 Do you see there? Oh, yeah. The head. 250 00:18:16,340 --> 00:18:18,500 Yeah. Do you see? Yeah. 251 00:18:22,380 --> 00:18:25,140 It's amazing to me how fast they are here. 252 00:18:25,140 --> 00:18:28,860 The octopuses in Alaska, they're kind of big, slow giants 253 00:18:28,860 --> 00:18:31,700 and these guys are just quick and agile and limber 254 00:18:31,700 --> 00:18:35,300 and really everything they do they seem to do it at ramped-up speed. 255 00:18:37,340 --> 00:18:41,100 I've had them in my hands and then they're already gone. 256 00:18:42,380 --> 00:18:45,340 And then I look over and Breece has caught it again. 257 00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:49,740 Its face is the strangest of them all. 258 00:18:57,460 --> 00:19:00,260 The day octopus is a master of camouflage. 259 00:19:07,380 --> 00:19:10,020 Its skin can change colour in milliseconds. 260 00:19:11,900 --> 00:19:15,020 And it can use muscles on the surface of its skin... 261 00:19:16,820 --> 00:19:19,100 ..to change texture as well. 262 00:19:24,340 --> 00:19:27,340 And this species has recently been recorded 263 00:19:27,340 --> 00:19:31,060 demonstrating an incredible behaviour with its colour displays. 264 00:19:35,820 --> 00:19:38,780 It's a display called passing cloud. 265 00:19:42,740 --> 00:19:45,380 It's just so stunningly beautiful. 266 00:19:45,380 --> 00:19:47,580 It's like, wow, what's that? 267 00:19:58,060 --> 00:20:01,780 The thing about passing cloud is it's a very impressive 268 00:20:01,780 --> 00:20:03,660 physiological ability... 269 00:20:07,140 --> 00:20:10,420 ..and at the same time it's a bit of a mystery. 270 00:20:15,020 --> 00:20:17,100 The most common theory you hear 271 00:20:17,100 --> 00:20:20,740 is that octopuses are using passing cloud to startle its prey. 272 00:20:21,740 --> 00:20:23,940 Trap it in the web of its arms. 273 00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:44,060 My octopus is showing impressive colour changes of her own. 274 00:20:51,300 --> 00:20:53,300 Observing what we're doing. 275 00:20:55,700 --> 00:21:00,100 We've seen how closely the octopus we have here at the house 276 00:21:00,100 --> 00:21:02,180 is watching our eyes. 277 00:21:03,300 --> 00:21:06,420 You look at them and you feel like they're looking back. 278 00:21:07,460 --> 00:21:10,820 That's not an illusion. They are looking back. 279 00:21:12,660 --> 00:21:15,580 And so, when you're an animal that's that attentive 280 00:21:15,580 --> 00:21:17,820 to another animal's eyes, 281 00:21:17,820 --> 00:21:23,060 that is very suggestive of high level of awareness of the world. 282 00:21:39,540 --> 00:21:42,980 Well, scientists do find questions about octopus intelligence 283 00:21:42,980 --> 00:21:45,020 particularly intriguing. 284 00:21:46,100 --> 00:21:49,540 At the Seattle Aquarium, they did some experiments giving different 285 00:21:49,540 --> 00:21:52,740 objects to octopuses and recorded what happened. 286 00:22:08,780 --> 00:22:11,260 In one of the most telling experiments, 287 00:22:11,260 --> 00:22:14,060 the researchers put a pill bottle in the tank 288 00:22:14,060 --> 00:22:16,500 with just enough air in it to float. 289 00:22:17,820 --> 00:22:20,820 There was no food or anything to be gained here 290 00:22:20,820 --> 00:22:25,060 but still a few octopuses found reason to be interested. 291 00:22:26,260 --> 00:22:28,620 Nothing happened at first, 292 00:22:28,620 --> 00:22:32,060 but after the fourth time, the octopus would, erm... 293 00:22:33,860 --> 00:22:36,460 ..would bounce... take the pill bottle, 294 00:22:36,460 --> 00:22:39,100 and blow it out into a stream of water 295 00:22:39,100 --> 00:22:41,500 that was circulating around the tank. 296 00:22:41,500 --> 00:22:43,300 There it goes. 297 00:22:44,940 --> 00:22:49,660 And the water would bring the pill bottle back to the octopus again 298 00:22:49,660 --> 00:22:52,100 and it would start the whole thing over again 299 00:22:52,100 --> 00:22:54,020 and it would do it again and again - 300 00:22:54,020 --> 00:22:57,380 blowing the pill bottle into the water until it came back 301 00:22:57,380 --> 00:23:00,580 and then blowing it back into the water again. 302 00:23:00,580 --> 00:23:02,620 A bit like bouncing a ball. 303 00:23:04,420 --> 00:23:07,060 The conclusion from this experiment was simple. 304 00:23:08,500 --> 00:23:10,740 It fit all the criteria for play. 305 00:23:11,820 --> 00:23:15,020 Play, of course, is something that intelligent animals do. 306 00:23:16,660 --> 00:23:19,820 And Laurel spends many hours playing with Heidi. 307 00:23:19,820 --> 00:23:21,580 SHE LAUGHS 308 00:23:22,940 --> 00:23:25,780 Now... Now she's... Now you say hello to me. 309 00:23:29,340 --> 00:23:33,900 Octopuses have up to 240 suckers on their arms. 310 00:23:34,940 --> 00:23:37,580 Each has sensitive chemical receptors. 311 00:23:37,580 --> 00:23:41,860 Heidi can touch and taste Laurel at the same time. 312 00:23:41,860 --> 00:23:44,260 She just lightly jetted at me. 313 00:23:44,260 --> 00:23:46,340 She doesn't want me to leave. 314 00:23:47,340 --> 00:23:50,820 Octopus also have oestrogen, like humans do. 315 00:23:50,820 --> 00:23:54,020 Is it possible that Heidi can be detecting the oestrogen 316 00:23:54,020 --> 00:23:55,660 on Laurel's skin? 317 00:23:55,660 --> 00:23:58,060 Does Heidi maybe taste the difference 318 00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:00,060 between males and females? 319 00:24:00,060 --> 00:24:01,540 Heidi! 320 00:24:02,540 --> 00:24:04,980 Her arm is now up my sleeve. 321 00:24:06,020 --> 00:24:08,020 That's fun. Heidi! 322 00:24:08,020 --> 00:24:09,860 You're... You're being... 323 00:24:09,860 --> 00:24:11,860 You're being naughty. 324 00:24:14,620 --> 00:24:18,340 She's lifting herself almost all the way out of the tank right now. 325 00:24:18,340 --> 00:24:20,220 Come here. Come here. 326 00:24:20,220 --> 00:24:21,620 Come here. 327 00:24:22,660 --> 00:24:24,060 Oh! 328 00:24:24,060 --> 00:24:25,860 Now I'm wet. 329 00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:32,140 The idea of Laurel having any kind of relationship with a mollusc 330 00:24:32,140 --> 00:24:34,820 is extraordinary when you think about it. 331 00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:40,020 This is an animal that has 600 million years 332 00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:41,740 of distance from us. 333 00:24:43,220 --> 00:24:47,540 That's almost as deep as any divide can be between two animals. 334 00:24:50,420 --> 00:24:55,100 With three hearts, no bones, a beak with a venomous bite 335 00:24:55,100 --> 00:24:58,100 and a gut that runs through its brain, 336 00:24:58,100 --> 00:25:02,260 to one point of view, the octopus is completely alien. 337 00:25:04,940 --> 00:25:08,020 As science fiction movies have long demonstrated, 338 00:25:08,020 --> 00:25:10,820 humans spend a lot of imagination 339 00:25:10,820 --> 00:25:14,060 dreaming up what it might be like to meet an alien. 340 00:25:22,100 --> 00:25:24,620 In the latest blockbuster, Arrival, 341 00:25:24,620 --> 00:25:27,900 the film-makers imagine what it might be like to encounter 342 00:25:27,900 --> 00:25:31,300 a species that changes the way we think about the universe. 343 00:25:36,860 --> 00:25:39,580 And I think it's an important observation 344 00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:42,300 that they culminate this encounter 345 00:25:42,300 --> 00:25:46,380 with cephalopod-like figures from outer space. 346 00:25:55,580 --> 00:25:59,100 To really understand quite how alien octopuses are to us 347 00:25:59,100 --> 00:26:02,180 and to every other intelligent form of life on Earth, 348 00:26:02,180 --> 00:26:05,820 we need to appreciate the unique evolutionary path of the octopus 349 00:26:05,820 --> 00:26:07,540 on the tree of life. 350 00:26:09,620 --> 00:26:12,780 It's octopus lecture 101 for my students. 351 00:26:15,420 --> 00:26:17,940 OK, what does the tree of life look like? 352 00:26:17,940 --> 00:26:21,980 Here are a couple of artistic versions. 353 00:26:21,980 --> 00:26:24,340 Now just to give you a quick overview, 354 00:26:24,340 --> 00:26:27,260 here's the plants, here's the animals, 355 00:26:27,260 --> 00:26:29,420 this is the branch that has the vertebrates... 356 00:26:29,420 --> 00:26:32,900 VOICEOVER: To meet the common ancestor of humans and octopus, 357 00:26:32,900 --> 00:26:35,540 you would have to travel back in time 358 00:26:35,540 --> 00:26:37,740 more than half a billion years... 359 00:26:39,100 --> 00:26:43,020 ..millions of years before any animal crawled out of the ocean 360 00:26:43,020 --> 00:26:44,220 on to the land. 361 00:26:45,300 --> 00:26:48,300 So here's the octopus and here's the human... 362 00:26:49,780 --> 00:26:52,100 ..and their last common ancestor 363 00:26:52,100 --> 00:26:55,340 is something that was fairly like a flatworm. 364 00:26:57,060 --> 00:27:00,100 And what would this common ancestor look like? 365 00:27:00,100 --> 00:27:03,500 Well, maybe a little bit like this. 366 00:27:04,980 --> 00:27:07,820 A small, flat worm. 367 00:27:11,380 --> 00:27:13,900 Barely any eyes to speak of, 368 00:27:13,900 --> 00:27:18,340 with a cluster of neurons forming just a pinprick of a brain. 369 00:27:23,420 --> 00:27:26,660 From this beginning, one path of evolution 370 00:27:26,660 --> 00:27:31,060 gave rise to every bird and every reptile, every mammal, 371 00:27:31,060 --> 00:27:33,420 all of them, us included, 372 00:27:33,420 --> 00:27:37,060 all adaptations from this common ancestor. 373 00:27:38,660 --> 00:27:41,420 Designs of eyes and brains and hearts 374 00:27:41,420 --> 00:27:44,780 becoming ever more sophisticated and more varied. 375 00:27:45,900 --> 00:27:49,060 That was the path for every intelligent animal... 376 00:27:50,620 --> 00:27:52,340 ..except for one. 377 00:27:55,900 --> 00:27:58,580 That is why people talk about meeting an octopus 378 00:27:58,580 --> 00:28:00,620 being like meeting an alien. 379 00:28:01,860 --> 00:28:07,780 Because octopus branch of life evolved on its own separate track, 380 00:28:07,780 --> 00:28:10,380 inventing its own version of an eye, 381 00:28:10,380 --> 00:28:12,780 its own version of a brain, 382 00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:14,900 its own version of a heart. 383 00:28:17,100 --> 00:28:20,300 The octopus is a unique expression of evolution... 384 00:28:21,940 --> 00:28:25,100 ..so any contact I have with these animals 385 00:28:25,100 --> 00:28:28,380 is possible because evolution built our eyes, 386 00:28:28,380 --> 00:28:31,340 our minds, our behaviour, twice over. 387 00:28:33,900 --> 00:28:37,820 There is no other intelligent animal on the planet 388 00:28:37,820 --> 00:28:42,060 that has evolved separately from all the other animals in this way. 389 00:28:47,340 --> 00:28:50,860 And this is why people are so fascinated to make contact 390 00:28:50,860 --> 00:28:55,940 and to understand every facet of this very particular sentience. 391 00:29:05,380 --> 00:29:06,580 In aquarium tanks 392 00:29:06,580 --> 00:29:08,900 all around the world, 393 00:29:08,900 --> 00:29:11,060 octopuses have been put through their paces. 394 00:29:17,020 --> 00:29:19,020 They've solved complex mazes... 395 00:29:20,020 --> 00:29:21,900 ..even learnt symbols, 396 00:29:21,900 --> 00:29:24,580 passed memory tests for their rewards... 397 00:29:26,100 --> 00:29:29,020 ..learning from feedback, forward-thinking, 398 00:29:29,020 --> 00:29:32,580 applying diverse behaviours to novel situations. 399 00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:36,420 When you stack them one on top of another, 400 00:29:36,420 --> 00:29:38,540 that's what we call intelligence. 401 00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:43,820 And the unique evolutionary journey of the octopus.... 402 00:29:43,820 --> 00:29:45,460 Come on, Heidi. 403 00:29:45,460 --> 00:29:48,340 ..makes this intelligence particularly intriguing. 404 00:29:51,140 --> 00:29:54,380 For a start, the intelligence of an octopus 405 00:29:54,380 --> 00:29:58,380 is not just gathered as one lump in its head, like it is with us. 406 00:30:03,860 --> 00:30:08,580 Parts of the octopus' intelligence are distributed in its arms. 407 00:30:16,940 --> 00:30:20,900 And that means that, to some extent, the body can be its own controller 408 00:30:20,900 --> 00:30:22,980 rather than having a body being driven 409 00:30:22,980 --> 00:30:25,020 entirely around by the brain. 410 00:30:26,140 --> 00:30:29,860 Eight arms, independently gathering data 411 00:30:29,860 --> 00:30:32,340 and reacting to the world around them. 412 00:30:40,420 --> 00:30:43,300 All kinds of intelligence require feedback. 413 00:30:45,180 --> 00:30:48,180 I think that's why humans are intelligent, 414 00:30:48,180 --> 00:30:50,060 is cos we just, you know... 415 00:30:50,060 --> 00:30:52,980 "No, you try and you learn from your errors," 416 00:30:52,980 --> 00:30:56,340 so trial and error is really the intelligent thing 417 00:30:56,340 --> 00:31:00,380 and octopuses make trial and error do more than you might expect. 418 00:31:22,860 --> 00:31:25,180 Heidi and I are playing around, 419 00:31:25,180 --> 00:31:30,060 recreating an early one of these experiments into octopus cognition. 420 00:31:31,300 --> 00:31:35,700 In 1959, a Harvard scientist asked a simple question. 421 00:31:36,900 --> 00:31:42,620 Can an octopus learn to pull and release a lever to get a reward? 422 00:31:42,620 --> 00:31:45,420 That experiment was successful 423 00:31:45,420 --> 00:31:49,620 and so, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to play with whether Heidi 424 00:31:49,620 --> 00:31:54,060 would be interested in manipulating something outside of her tank? 425 00:31:54,060 --> 00:31:58,300 And so this is sort of a way to see if she can learn that 426 00:31:58,300 --> 00:32:02,340 when she gets the light to turn on, she can bring us into the room. 427 00:32:02,340 --> 00:32:05,580 It's kind of an interesting thing to play around with. 428 00:32:06,580 --> 00:32:09,620 When you pull on the string, a light goes on... 429 00:32:09,620 --> 00:32:11,060 BUZZER 430 00:32:11,060 --> 00:32:13,020 Ooh. And the buzzer. 431 00:32:13,020 --> 00:32:15,340 HE LAUGHS 432 00:32:16,820 --> 00:32:18,940 Want to chase the ball? 433 00:32:20,580 --> 00:32:23,060 Come on. Up here. 434 00:32:23,060 --> 00:32:24,420 Come on. 435 00:32:24,420 --> 00:32:27,380 The concept, which didn't get fully explored, 436 00:32:27,380 --> 00:32:31,820 was can she learn that by doing something in the tank, 437 00:32:31,820 --> 00:32:36,020 she can affect my behaviour when I'm not actually in view? 438 00:32:37,860 --> 00:32:39,500 That's it. Come on. 439 00:32:39,500 --> 00:32:41,540 There you go. That a girl. 440 00:32:41,540 --> 00:32:43,340 Come on. Oh. 441 00:32:43,340 --> 00:32:45,860 Oh, you got it. Oh! 442 00:32:45,860 --> 00:32:47,820 BUZZER You vicious predator! 443 00:32:47,820 --> 00:32:49,660 BUZZER 444 00:32:49,660 --> 00:32:54,380 So I was curious about, does the octopus retain enough of a concept 445 00:32:54,380 --> 00:32:57,780 of the person not present in her view 446 00:32:57,780 --> 00:33:00,020 but present in her mind? 447 00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:03,060 You going to get it, Heidi? 448 00:33:08,020 --> 00:33:09,580 BUZZER 449 00:33:09,580 --> 00:33:11,020 It's on. 450 00:33:13,380 --> 00:33:14,860 Well, hi. 451 00:33:15,860 --> 00:33:17,380 You get it? 452 00:33:17,380 --> 00:33:19,300 Well done. 453 00:33:20,820 --> 00:33:22,780 BUZZER 454 00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:31,100 It didn't take her any time at all to learn 455 00:33:31,100 --> 00:33:33,100 that there was a cue over here. 456 00:33:34,540 --> 00:33:36,460 You want some shrimp? 457 00:33:36,460 --> 00:33:39,860 But the rest of it, you know, that was... 458 00:33:40,820 --> 00:33:42,340 ..challenging. 459 00:33:42,340 --> 00:33:44,020 BUZZER 460 00:33:44,020 --> 00:33:46,140 This idea was more fun in the concept 461 00:33:46,140 --> 00:33:48,340 than at any point in the execution. 462 00:33:48,340 --> 00:33:50,060 Yeah. 463 00:33:51,020 --> 00:33:53,220 Heidi got fairly insistent. 464 00:33:53,220 --> 00:33:55,100 BUZZER 465 00:33:55,100 --> 00:33:57,780 And I decided to take this all apart. 466 00:33:57,780 --> 00:33:59,540 HE LAUGHS 467 00:34:06,060 --> 00:34:08,700 Our understanding of octopus intelligence 468 00:34:08,700 --> 00:34:13,980 took another leap forward when in Indonesia, in 2009, 469 00:34:13,980 --> 00:34:16,580 researchers reported a veined octopus 470 00:34:16,580 --> 00:34:18,860 doing something truly remarkable. 471 00:34:20,900 --> 00:34:25,340 It was a discovery that would put our understanding of the octopus 472 00:34:25,340 --> 00:34:27,660 onto a new level of sentience 473 00:34:27,660 --> 00:34:31,020 occupied by only a few species of animals. 474 00:34:32,900 --> 00:34:36,940 Living on the sand flats, they have very few places to hide, 475 00:34:36,940 --> 00:34:41,100 but this octopus has a unique solution to the problem. 476 00:34:48,460 --> 00:34:51,060 It carries half a coconut shell with it. 477 00:34:56,660 --> 00:35:00,500 But it needs to find something else to complete the set. 478 00:35:03,540 --> 00:35:05,580 Two coconut halves. 479 00:35:07,020 --> 00:35:08,780 A perfect shelter. 480 00:35:14,100 --> 00:35:17,380 What is remarkable about this discovery 481 00:35:17,380 --> 00:35:20,580 is how the octopus dismantles its home... 482 00:35:24,060 --> 00:35:26,060 ..carries it around... 483 00:35:37,380 --> 00:35:40,300 ..uses it to hide and to ambush prey... 484 00:35:45,380 --> 00:35:48,340 ..and now it's putting it back together again. 485 00:35:51,620 --> 00:35:54,100 This octopus is thinking ahead. 486 00:35:55,140 --> 00:35:57,380 This is real flexibility. 487 00:35:57,380 --> 00:36:02,460 The octopus has to anticipate to carry that awkward object around 488 00:36:02,460 --> 00:36:06,300 and then correctly assemble the separate parts 489 00:36:06,300 --> 00:36:09,340 to create a single functioning tool. 490 00:36:10,580 --> 00:36:16,340 And less than 1% of all animals have ever been seen to use tools. 491 00:36:22,140 --> 00:36:25,180 And it's not just science that is starting to take notice 492 00:36:25,180 --> 00:36:27,340 of the extraordinary octopus. 493 00:36:29,660 --> 00:36:32,700 Laurel was showing me all the attention these animals 494 00:36:32,700 --> 00:36:34,500 are getting from people. 495 00:36:35,900 --> 00:36:38,060 I've seen Heidi do this before. Yeah. 496 00:36:38,060 --> 00:36:41,860 So my real question on this one is, who's taking the video? 497 00:36:41,860 --> 00:36:45,300 Is it another octopus who stole the GoPro? 498 00:36:45,300 --> 00:36:47,020 LAUREL LAUGHS 499 00:36:47,020 --> 00:36:48,940 Maybe he's filming himself. 500 00:36:48,940 --> 00:36:50,780 Yeah, he's doing a blog. 501 00:36:50,780 --> 00:36:52,820 Oh, yeah. Video blog! 502 00:36:52,820 --> 00:36:54,020 Yeah. 503 00:36:56,380 --> 00:37:00,580 And he's like, "Look at this strange thing that came and found me." 504 00:37:03,140 --> 00:37:05,620 We're no longer just eating octopuses. 505 00:37:05,620 --> 00:37:10,020 People are meeting them now - making contact in the ocean. 506 00:37:11,140 --> 00:37:15,060 I held a fish in front of his shell and he grabbed it from my hand. 507 00:37:15,060 --> 00:37:17,260 He touched my finger with his arm 508 00:37:17,260 --> 00:37:21,100 and I think that we were both a bit surprised, so we both pull back. 509 00:37:21,100 --> 00:37:24,940 This time he grabbed my finger and he tried to pull my finger inside 510 00:37:24,940 --> 00:37:27,340 but I was really surprised by his strength. 511 00:37:27,340 --> 00:37:29,620 This clip has 11 million hits. 512 00:37:29,620 --> 00:37:32,020 He was punching the fish away with his arms. 513 00:37:32,020 --> 00:37:34,500 It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. 514 00:37:34,500 --> 00:37:37,100 This octopus trying to punch away little fish. 515 00:37:38,140 --> 00:37:42,620 It was definitely the coolest encounter I've had with an octopus. 516 00:37:42,620 --> 00:37:45,820 I tried to see how he responds to different objects, 517 00:37:45,820 --> 00:37:48,100 like a cone shell or a mirror, 518 00:37:48,100 --> 00:37:51,140 but he never really respond the way that I expect. 519 00:37:51,140 --> 00:37:54,380 For example, he was not interested at all in a cone shell 520 00:37:54,380 --> 00:37:57,420 that I gave him, but he kept going up to my hands 521 00:37:57,420 --> 00:38:01,300 and he kept feeling my little elastic band around my wrist. 522 00:38:01,300 --> 00:38:04,740 I went on holiday and I didn't see him for a few days before. 523 00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:08,100 I was worried he wouldn't be there any more when I came back. 524 00:38:08,100 --> 00:38:12,020 But I found him and he swam up to me and he touched my foot. 525 00:38:14,540 --> 00:38:17,540 985 clams disliked this video. 526 00:38:18,780 --> 00:38:21,140 That's funny. 527 00:38:22,580 --> 00:38:24,820 This one also went viral. 528 00:38:30,340 --> 00:38:32,860 It wasn't hard to get Heidi to demonstrate 529 00:38:32,860 --> 00:38:35,300 these impressive skills of contortion. 530 00:38:36,580 --> 00:38:39,260 She doesn't have a skeleton. 531 00:38:39,260 --> 00:38:41,260 Want to go through? 532 00:38:42,500 --> 00:38:45,140 Come on, Heidi. Come out and play. 533 00:38:45,140 --> 00:38:46,620 Come on. 534 00:38:46,620 --> 00:38:50,580 Octopus are able to squeeze through the smallest of gaps. 535 00:38:51,540 --> 00:38:53,060 That a girl. 536 00:38:53,060 --> 00:38:54,980 That's it. Come on, sweetie. 537 00:38:55,940 --> 00:38:58,020 Good girl. Come on. 538 00:38:58,020 --> 00:38:59,540 Come on. 539 00:39:00,540 --> 00:39:02,380 A little squeeze. 540 00:39:03,420 --> 00:39:05,820 There we go. That a girl. 541 00:39:05,820 --> 00:39:07,740 Keep coming. You can do it. 542 00:39:07,740 --> 00:39:09,540 Almost. 543 00:39:09,540 --> 00:39:11,580 You can squeeze. 544 00:39:21,740 --> 00:39:24,100 I need to be very careful. 545 00:39:24,100 --> 00:39:27,580 This ability makes Heidi a real escape risk. 546 00:39:28,860 --> 00:39:32,540 She is quite capable of leaving the tank if she gets a chance. 547 00:39:34,620 --> 00:39:39,580 In fact, octopus can move across land with surprising ease. 548 00:39:49,300 --> 00:39:51,140 In northern Australia, 549 00:39:51,140 --> 00:39:54,820 it's part of the hunting strategy of the Abdopus octopus. 550 00:40:01,580 --> 00:40:06,020 Octopus have gills, so they can't survive out here for long. 551 00:40:07,420 --> 00:40:10,300 But they do absorb some oxygen through their skin... 552 00:40:12,420 --> 00:40:16,540 ..allowing them enough time to find a new rock pool 553 00:40:16,540 --> 00:40:18,980 with new opportunities. 554 00:40:27,140 --> 00:40:30,980 And leaving the water is not just being seen in the wild. 555 00:40:34,620 --> 00:40:36,420 There's stories everywhere. 556 00:40:36,420 --> 00:40:39,100 There's far more stories than there are data. 557 00:40:43,820 --> 00:40:47,660 One story tells of a trawler in the English Channel 558 00:40:47,660 --> 00:40:51,580 and an octopus caught in a net left on deck. 559 00:40:51,580 --> 00:40:54,620 Somehow it manages to slither from the deck 560 00:40:54,620 --> 00:40:57,420 down the companionway into the cabin 561 00:40:57,420 --> 00:41:00,580 and, hours later, is found hiding in a teapot. 562 00:41:01,620 --> 00:41:04,060 Now we turn to a tale of escape. 563 00:41:04,060 --> 00:41:06,340 A daring act by an octopus. 564 00:41:06,340 --> 00:41:07,340 Inky, the octopus. 565 00:41:07,340 --> 00:41:09,380 In a New Zealand aquarium, 566 00:41:09,380 --> 00:41:11,180 another octopus named Inky 567 00:41:11,180 --> 00:41:13,100 becomes famous on the news 568 00:41:13,100 --> 00:41:15,900 when it was reported for escaping its tank 569 00:41:15,900 --> 00:41:19,660 and crawling across the floor, disappearing down a drain, 570 00:41:19,660 --> 00:41:21,620 escaping to the sea. 571 00:41:21,620 --> 00:41:25,740 The manager of the aquarium says Inky will not be pursued. 572 00:41:27,420 --> 00:41:30,180 Some of my favourite stories are about pet octopus 573 00:41:30,180 --> 00:41:32,500 popping out of their tank... 574 00:41:33,420 --> 00:41:35,540 ..to snack on their neighbours. 575 00:41:37,820 --> 00:41:41,300 People notice their fishes going missing in the middle of the night. 576 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:45,300 They discover that an octopus might sneak out 577 00:41:45,300 --> 00:41:47,540 under the cover of dark... 578 00:41:48,580 --> 00:41:50,820 ..and then return unnoticed. 579 00:41:53,700 --> 00:41:58,340 My investigations into this suggest an octopus leaving its tank 580 00:41:58,340 --> 00:42:00,540 to grab a snack does happen, 581 00:42:00,540 --> 00:42:02,980 but finding its way back? 582 00:42:04,020 --> 00:42:06,620 That is probably urban legend. 583 00:42:19,540 --> 00:42:21,700 Back in our living room, 584 00:42:21,700 --> 00:42:24,980 Heidi has become a fully-fledged consummate predator. 585 00:42:28,780 --> 00:42:31,860 Sometimes, when Heidi hunts, 586 00:42:31,860 --> 00:42:34,820 before the attack, she might be camouflaged. 587 00:42:35,780 --> 00:42:37,780 But as she gets ready... 588 00:42:38,820 --> 00:42:41,340 ..she'll drop all her camouflage... 589 00:42:43,620 --> 00:42:46,580 ..and then there's this ghostly white form. 590 00:42:51,340 --> 00:42:52,940 And then pounce. 591 00:42:59,460 --> 00:43:02,140 While she's a master of her environment... 592 00:43:02,140 --> 00:43:04,900 DAVID ATTENBOROUGH ON TV: ..invigorated by daily sunshine... 593 00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:09,060 ..she is also taking part in our lives outside the tank, 594 00:43:09,060 --> 00:43:12,860 adapting to our daily routine with remarkable ease. 595 00:43:14,900 --> 00:43:16,820 We'd come in, we'd turn on the TV, 596 00:43:16,820 --> 00:43:19,260 we'd sit down and a couple of minutes later 597 00:43:19,260 --> 00:43:22,300 she'd move over to the front of the tank, closer to the TV. 598 00:43:24,420 --> 00:43:26,900 She started doing that pretty much every time 599 00:43:26,900 --> 00:43:29,740 we would come into the living room to watch TV, 600 00:43:29,740 --> 00:43:32,860 and so we'd have TV time with the octopus. 601 00:43:46,820 --> 00:43:49,860 I think this is how she would orient herself 602 00:43:49,860 --> 00:43:53,420 if she's actually watching it cos her eyes just moved 603 00:43:53,420 --> 00:43:57,380 so that they're more facing towards the TV. 604 00:43:57,380 --> 00:44:01,060 TV: An oceanic wanderer stops by to be cleaned... 605 00:44:01,060 --> 00:44:04,020 There seems to be, like, very subtle changes, 606 00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:06,340 like slight widening of eyes 607 00:44:06,340 --> 00:44:09,820 and, like, a slightly faster breathing. 608 00:44:09,820 --> 00:44:12,380 TV: ..invigorated by daily sunshine, 609 00:44:12,380 --> 00:44:14,380 marine life flourishes... 610 00:44:14,380 --> 00:44:17,300 But is Heidi really watching TV with Laurel? 611 00:44:18,380 --> 00:44:21,100 The idea isn't as far fetched as it sounds. 612 00:44:22,660 --> 00:44:27,500 Researchers for a long time have used video 613 00:44:27,500 --> 00:44:31,060 to show cuttlefish and octopuses. 614 00:44:32,940 --> 00:44:36,380 And see how they react to it. Are they signalling to one another? 615 00:44:36,380 --> 00:44:38,660 Is there's sort of a language of behaviour? 616 00:44:39,620 --> 00:44:44,260 So it's completely believable that Heidi is watching television. 617 00:44:44,260 --> 00:44:47,340 TV: ..long distances along the reef in order to get here. 618 00:44:47,340 --> 00:44:50,380 But to what extent is she watching us? 619 00:44:52,140 --> 00:44:56,860 Increasingly, we can see just how well Heidi recognises us. 620 00:44:56,860 --> 00:45:00,900 There is good evidence that she is aware of who we are. 621 00:45:03,380 --> 00:45:06,260 So sometimes I take extra measures... 622 00:45:07,340 --> 00:45:09,340 ..to be someone else. 623 00:45:11,300 --> 00:45:13,300 EERIE MUSIC 624 00:45:27,820 --> 00:45:30,380 This isn't an octopus horror show. 625 00:45:31,340 --> 00:45:33,620 It's actually based on hard science. 626 00:45:36,340 --> 00:45:40,540 There is plenty of evidence that shows octopus recognise people. 627 00:45:41,540 --> 00:45:44,140 I'm going to weigh Heidi today 628 00:45:44,140 --> 00:45:46,860 and to do that I've got to capture her 629 00:45:46,860 --> 00:45:49,380 so that I can lift her up on the scale 630 00:45:49,380 --> 00:45:52,580 and she might not like that so I'm going to wear a mask. 631 00:45:57,660 --> 00:46:00,380 Well, you see, there's an interesting study 632 00:46:00,380 --> 00:46:04,180 that was done in 2008 that showed that octopuses in aquariums 633 00:46:04,180 --> 00:46:07,580 remember and recognise individual human faces. 634 00:46:12,860 --> 00:46:17,100 The experiment dressed two people in identical uniforms. 635 00:46:18,500 --> 00:46:20,780 One would feed the octopus. 636 00:46:23,620 --> 00:46:27,260 The other would annoy the octopus with a bristly stick. 637 00:46:30,140 --> 00:46:33,740 Within just a week, the octopus would move towards the person 638 00:46:33,740 --> 00:46:35,620 that fed them 639 00:46:35,620 --> 00:46:38,860 and avoid or even squirt the annoying one. 640 00:46:44,540 --> 00:46:46,580 What do you think, Heidi? 641 00:46:47,540 --> 00:46:49,100 Here goes. 642 00:46:49,100 --> 00:46:51,660 And so, when I weigh Heidi, 643 00:46:51,660 --> 00:46:55,100 this just might make it a little easier for her to forgive me 644 00:46:55,100 --> 00:46:57,540 for capturing her and weighing her. 645 00:46:59,740 --> 00:47:03,140 It's harder to tell in the living room experience, 646 00:47:03,140 --> 00:47:06,380 but Laurel is quite convinced that Heidi showed a difference 647 00:47:06,380 --> 00:47:08,900 between the way she reacted to either of us 648 00:47:08,900 --> 00:47:10,740 and visitors to the house. 649 00:47:13,180 --> 00:47:16,660 Recognising people on the other side of the glass 650 00:47:16,660 --> 00:47:20,460 is an unlikely ability for a creature that comes from the ocean. 651 00:47:21,500 --> 00:47:23,340 OK, you've been weighed. 652 00:47:24,380 --> 00:47:27,380 And there is a new dimension being added to this study 653 00:47:27,380 --> 00:47:29,020 of octopus intelligence. 654 00:47:30,020 --> 00:47:31,580 Personality. 655 00:47:33,380 --> 00:47:36,700 Scientists have used the relationship between octopus 656 00:47:36,700 --> 00:47:39,380 and humans in an aquarium setting like this... 657 00:47:39,380 --> 00:47:43,060 Oop! That's the first time that she's ever taken it away from me. 658 00:47:43,060 --> 00:47:48,100 ..to demonstrate how individual octopus have their own personality. 659 00:47:49,660 --> 00:47:53,060 And Laurel is certainly convinced about the particular character 660 00:47:53,060 --> 00:47:54,580 of our octopus. 661 00:47:55,580 --> 00:47:58,500 Heidi's definitely a troublemaker. 662 00:48:02,620 --> 00:48:05,700 When we feed her, she grabs onto you... 663 00:48:06,580 --> 00:48:08,020 Heidi! 664 00:48:08,020 --> 00:48:09,820 ..and then she jets at you. 665 00:48:09,820 --> 00:48:11,660 That was very wet! 666 00:48:13,420 --> 00:48:16,540 It's just cold. She got it right up my sleeve. 667 00:48:17,580 --> 00:48:21,460 You know, you're trying to pull away with this octopus stuck to your arm 668 00:48:21,460 --> 00:48:24,900 and she's jetting water in your face and it's, you know, she's trying 669 00:48:24,900 --> 00:48:28,100 to get attention and she doesn't want us to leave the room. 670 00:48:32,420 --> 00:48:35,860 There have now been several studies that have looked for signs 671 00:48:35,860 --> 00:48:39,020 of personality in different cephalopods 672 00:48:39,020 --> 00:48:43,340 and typically find that there are individual personalities. 673 00:48:45,420 --> 00:48:48,860 Bringing the octopus into an area of study normally reserved 674 00:48:48,860 --> 00:48:51,860 for animals like chimpanzees and dolphins 675 00:48:51,860 --> 00:48:54,540 is another milestone in the understanding 676 00:48:54,540 --> 00:48:56,340 of octopus intelligence. 677 00:48:57,620 --> 00:49:00,980 And certainly the first time for an invertebrate. 678 00:49:06,900 --> 00:49:10,060 This experience with the octopus in our living room 679 00:49:10,060 --> 00:49:13,100 helps me understand a little bit more about how they 680 00:49:13,100 --> 00:49:16,940 experience the world, but it also highlights a paradox... 681 00:49:17,900 --> 00:49:20,140 ..one of the cephalopod mysteries. 682 00:49:22,140 --> 00:49:25,260 Scientists have a model that suggests that 683 00:49:25,260 --> 00:49:28,260 some of the things that go along with intelligence 684 00:49:28,260 --> 00:49:30,340 are longer life spans... 685 00:49:31,300 --> 00:49:33,620 ..and complex social lives. 686 00:49:33,620 --> 00:49:37,380 Neither of those things apply to octopuses. 687 00:49:38,620 --> 00:49:41,660 They live short lives and they spend them alone. 688 00:49:43,100 --> 00:49:48,380 The fact that octopuses are solitary seems at odds with how Heidi 689 00:49:48,380 --> 00:49:52,620 can have this kind of intelligent relationship with us at all. 690 00:49:54,620 --> 00:49:56,900 Recently, I've been investigating 691 00:49:56,900 --> 00:49:59,100 a unique discovery in Australia... 692 00:49:59,100 --> 00:50:00,340 That a girl. 693 00:50:00,340 --> 00:50:05,340 ..one that suggests octopuses may not always be solitary after all. 694 00:50:09,100 --> 00:50:13,180 This extraordinary discovery happened in 2009 695 00:50:13,180 --> 00:50:16,580 in a small bay not that far from Sydney Harbour. 696 00:50:18,260 --> 00:50:22,700 A diver named Matt Lawrence plunged over the side of his boat 697 00:50:22,700 --> 00:50:26,380 and drifting along just exploring in areas of the bay 698 00:50:26,380 --> 00:50:29,020 that everyone else found were pretty boring. 699 00:50:29,020 --> 00:50:31,660 And in the middle of a silty area, 700 00:50:31,660 --> 00:50:34,820 he came across something very unexpected. 701 00:50:37,300 --> 00:50:39,860 Piles of empty scallop shells. 702 00:50:39,860 --> 00:50:42,420 And in amongst the scallop shells, 703 00:50:42,420 --> 00:50:45,660 about a dozen octopuses had made their homes. 704 00:50:53,380 --> 00:50:56,020 We have nicknamed the site Octopolis, 705 00:50:56,020 --> 00:50:59,380 although it's hardly a city of octopuses. 706 00:50:59,380 --> 00:51:01,900 But an aggregation like this 707 00:51:01,900 --> 00:51:05,020 is unheard of anywhere else in the world. 708 00:51:13,380 --> 00:51:17,140 I'm helping to try and find out what's going on here. 709 00:51:17,140 --> 00:51:20,620 And working with Matt, we're putting some remote cameras down 710 00:51:20,620 --> 00:51:24,340 to get a closer look at the behaviour at this unusual site. 711 00:51:25,500 --> 00:51:28,300 We wanted to capture the natural behaviour 712 00:51:28,300 --> 00:51:31,380 and Matt started putting GoPro down. 713 00:51:31,380 --> 00:51:34,420 You know, one or two GoPros on the site to sort of 714 00:51:34,420 --> 00:51:37,340 film the octopuses when divers weren't around. 715 00:51:37,340 --> 00:51:40,620 And so it's kind of exciting to come back 716 00:51:40,620 --> 00:51:44,340 and track what's going on with the octopuses from moment to moment. 717 00:51:50,060 --> 00:51:52,860 So that's the octopus... Yeah, he's pulling down another camera. 718 00:51:52,860 --> 00:51:54,900 Taking over the camera now. 719 00:51:57,860 --> 00:51:59,820 Oh, he's got the camera. 720 00:51:59,820 --> 00:52:03,540 No wonder we can't keep the cameras alive. They take a beating. 721 00:52:03,540 --> 00:52:06,100 I love it when this happens and then another video 722 00:52:06,100 --> 00:52:09,100 records the octopus vandalising our cameras. 723 00:52:10,380 --> 00:52:14,060 And when the cameras aren't getting pulled apart, they're recording 724 00:52:14,060 --> 00:52:17,860 social interactions that you simply can't see anywhere else. 725 00:52:19,300 --> 00:52:21,940 They appear to signal to one another 726 00:52:21,940 --> 00:52:25,780 and make themselves look really dark and conspicuous and large 727 00:52:25,780 --> 00:52:27,660 when they're approaching 728 00:52:27,660 --> 00:52:31,260 and rather flat and pale when they're retreating. 729 00:52:34,420 --> 00:52:37,340 You see octopuses reaching towards each other. 730 00:52:38,420 --> 00:52:41,020 I wouldn't want to speculate yet what that is, 731 00:52:41,020 --> 00:52:43,060 but they're interacting. 732 00:52:43,060 --> 00:52:45,260 This is pretty new. 733 00:52:50,580 --> 00:52:52,940 So this - this is more of that signalling. 734 00:52:52,940 --> 00:52:58,420 But why does the approaching octopus evict this one and not that one? 735 00:52:59,340 --> 00:53:01,220 I wonder if it's possible 736 00:53:01,220 --> 00:53:04,220 that they're recognising one another, you know. Yeah. 737 00:53:04,220 --> 00:53:08,060 They prefer one animal over another, you know, like a smaller rival male. 738 00:53:08,060 --> 00:53:10,500 That's the high five. Yeah, there it is. 739 00:53:10,500 --> 00:53:13,100 Go over and touch each other and just... Yeah. 740 00:53:17,020 --> 00:53:19,820 Octopolis is sort of a wonderland. 741 00:53:19,820 --> 00:53:22,260 It's just kind of awe-inspiring. 742 00:53:23,900 --> 00:53:27,220 There's octopuses side by side in adjacent dens... 743 00:53:28,580 --> 00:53:31,620 ..and that's so surprising for an animal 744 00:53:31,620 --> 00:53:33,820 that we always thought was solitary. 745 00:53:35,500 --> 00:53:39,700 You see octopuses approaching one another, then chasing one another. 746 00:53:40,700 --> 00:53:42,460 We see them wrestle with one another. 747 00:53:42,460 --> 00:53:44,780 It's always fairly spectacular cos it's like watching 748 00:53:44,780 --> 00:53:46,580 two umbrellas have a fight. 749 00:53:46,580 --> 00:53:47,700 HE LAUGHS 750 00:53:54,620 --> 00:53:58,980 What makes Octopolis unique is that this is a spot 751 00:53:58,980 --> 00:54:02,060 where the conditions occur that force... 752 00:54:03,100 --> 00:54:05,660 ..social skills upon the octopus. 753 00:54:07,740 --> 00:54:10,020 It's a very exciting find. 754 00:54:10,020 --> 00:54:13,460 It does sort of shake up the cephalopod world a little bit, 755 00:54:13,460 --> 00:54:16,820 to think that octopuses may have to deal with one another 756 00:54:16,820 --> 00:54:20,540 and, in doing so, sort of hone their social skills. 757 00:54:26,460 --> 00:54:30,300 The research has only just begun and we'll need to work out 758 00:54:30,300 --> 00:54:32,580 how these environmental conditions 759 00:54:32,580 --> 00:54:35,300 might create what we thought did not happen... 760 00:54:37,860 --> 00:54:41,820 ..octopuses living side by side with one another. 761 00:54:45,100 --> 00:54:48,820 Each new discovery makes a little more sense of how Heidi 762 00:54:48,820 --> 00:54:52,340 can have a relationship like she does with Laurel and me. 763 00:55:12,700 --> 00:55:15,140 Having an octopus in our living room 764 00:55:15,140 --> 00:55:19,060 has enabled us an intimacy not possible in the lab. 765 00:55:22,420 --> 00:55:27,340 And last night I witnessed something I've never seen recorded before. 766 00:55:34,900 --> 00:55:38,380 You know, if she is dreaming, this is a dramatic moment. 767 00:55:44,860 --> 00:55:49,340 You could almost just narrate the body changes and narrate the dream. 768 00:55:51,740 --> 00:55:53,900 So here she's asleep. 769 00:55:53,900 --> 00:55:57,380 She sees a crab and her colour starts to change a little bit. 770 00:55:59,340 --> 00:56:01,300 Then she turns all dark. 771 00:56:02,620 --> 00:56:05,940 Octopuses will do that when they leave the bottom. 772 00:56:11,820 --> 00:56:13,300 This is a camouflage, 773 00:56:13,300 --> 00:56:17,340 like, she's just subdued a crab and now she's, erm... 774 00:56:18,380 --> 00:56:20,260 ..going to sit there and eat it 775 00:56:20,260 --> 00:56:22,220 and she doesn't want anyone to notice her. 776 00:56:24,660 --> 00:56:28,860 It's a very unusual behaviour to see the colour come and go 777 00:56:28,860 --> 00:56:30,740 on her mantle like that. 778 00:56:32,380 --> 00:56:34,060 I mean, just to be able to... 779 00:56:35,260 --> 00:56:37,380 ..see all the different colour patterns 780 00:56:37,380 --> 00:56:39,500 just flashing one after another. 781 00:56:39,500 --> 00:56:42,140 You don't usually see that when an animal's sleeping, 782 00:56:42,140 --> 00:56:43,540 which really is fascinating. 783 00:56:46,820 --> 00:56:49,020 But, yeah, if she's dreaming, 784 00:56:49,020 --> 00:56:50,820 that's the dream. 785 00:56:55,420 --> 00:56:58,220 The solitary octopus does not fit our theories 786 00:56:58,220 --> 00:57:00,580 of how animal intelligence can evolve. 787 00:57:02,300 --> 00:57:04,260 And yet, it is. 788 00:57:08,380 --> 00:57:11,100 And there is another thing about the octopus 789 00:57:11,100 --> 00:57:15,380 which also contradicts our theories on the development of intelligence. 790 00:57:17,380 --> 00:57:21,380 It is something Laurel and I will soon have to come to terms with 791 00:57:21,380 --> 00:57:25,780 because most octopus live for only a year or two at most. 792 00:57:29,700 --> 00:57:33,300 It is incredible that octopus can become so sophisticated 793 00:57:33,300 --> 00:57:35,340 in such a short time. 794 00:57:40,300 --> 00:57:42,700 There is a connection here 795 00:57:42,700 --> 00:57:47,980 that crosses a divide not just from air into water, 796 00:57:47,980 --> 00:57:51,820 but also across half a billion years of separation. 797 00:57:53,860 --> 00:57:56,900 And it's been a privilege to have a relationship 798 00:57:56,900 --> 00:57:59,780 with such a strange and wonderful creature.