Aussie Octopus

by | May 31, 2010

Octopi are interesting animals. With their eerily human eyes, their tentacled legs, their way of looking at you – directly at you – you just know they’re thinking something in that big brain, and you can’t help wondering what.

I’ve seen octopi many times while scuba diving, and I’ve found them fun to watch and play with  (as long as they’re not too big, of course.)

They’re strong, fast swimmers. They’re escape artists, able to fit into tiny crevices in the reef where you’d swear nothing could go. And they’re colorful, able to change skin color and pattern in a split second, creating their own camouflage. Scientists speculate that octopi talk to each other with color. And they’re certainly intelligent enough to do so.

The one I painted lives down under. Those colors aren’t imaginary; they’re real.  And they’re a talking to you. This big-eyed beauty is warning us that she’s poisonous.

Don’t you wish we could tell which people were poisonous by their colors?

(Click picture for larger image.)

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